
Glass 1 O^h 

Book 3 S1.S^ 



I 



/ 



THE 



HISTORY 



N E W H A M P S H I R E, 



FROM ITS DISCOVERY, IN 1614, TO THE PAS- 
SAGE OF THE TOLERATION ACT, IN 1819. 



BY GEORGE BARSTOW 



SECOND KDITIO.N. 

PUBLISH ICD BY 

LITTLE & BROWN, liOSTON; 

GEO. P. PUTNAM A- (JO., 10 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK. 

Jam. 20, 1853. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, 

BY GEORGE BARSTOW, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusette. 



(i 



S caAIUHEAI), rRINTER. 

r.3 V'Sie; Street, .V. Y. 



PREFACE. 

It is not without distrusting my own abilities, 
that I have resolved to perpetuate what is worthy 
of remembrance in the history of my native state. 
I am aware of the dilficuUies and dangers of such 
an undertaking. 

To discard prejudice — to sit in cahn judgment 
upon those who cannot speak for themselves, but 
who require justice from history — to examine with 
a faithful scrutiny the institutions of one's own 
country — to present candid, temperate, and just 
views of men and things, and yet to mingle pleas- 
ure with instruction — this is a task which few 
have the assurance to begin, and fewor still can 
say that they have successfully executed. Yet 1 
have thought that I could do something for those 
who would know their state's history with trifling 
expense of time, and more for those who are better 
pleased to travel in the smooth path of connected 
narrative, than to toil up the rugged ascent of 
time-worn documents, and broken, disjointed an- 
nals. 

From the mass of materials before me, I have 
aimed to build a compact edifice, with fair pro- 
portions. My first and highest object has been to 
present the truth. Yet I have desired to make 
the history of New Hampshire not simply a record 
of facts. I have endeavored to trace actions to 



IV PREFACE. 

motives, and results to causes. I have sometimes 
delineated the character of those whose actions I 
have portrayed. I have dared to censure where I 
thought censure to be due, and have applauded 
whenever superior virtues have presented a spec- 
tacle for admiration. Above all, I have sought to 
place in bold relief those examples of moral great- 
ness which are fitted for the instruction and emu- 
lation of posterity. Such are the duties which I 
have assumed, and which I have endeavored to 
execute faithfully and impartially ; but it is not 
without many misgivings that I now^ commit this 
volume to the judgment of the public. 

The valuable assistance rendered me by others 
demands a suitable acknowledgment. Of the&e I 
take great pleasure in mentioning my talented 
friend James M. Rix, of Lancaster, to whose 
research I am indebted for many important facts. 
I am mider like obligations to Alexander Ladd, 
of Portsmouth, for all that relates to the commerce 
of that town. Among those who have furnished 
me with rare files of papers and documents, are 
the Directors of the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and 
Virgin Sl Moses, the present publishers of the 
New Hampshire Gazette. It is due to Josiah 
Stevens, Jr., secretary, and to Zenas Clem- 
ent, treasurer, of the state, to say that their 
politeness and attention have greatly facilitated 
the examinations which I have been obliged to 
make of the state records and papers deposited 
at Concord in the public archives. 

Boston, June 1, 1842. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introduction.— The red race— Tlie first setlkrs of New Hainpsliive, their 
character— The Scottish emigrants— ColumLiis— Early voyages— The Cabots— 
Discoveries of the English, French, and Portuguese-Conquests of the Span- 
iards—North American Indians— Discovery of New Hampshire— Smith-His 
character-Mason and Gorges-Sir Walter Raleigh-Landing at Portsmouth- 
Melancholy decay of the Indians-Search for gold- Description of the country- 
Attempt to introduce the feudal system into New Hampshire— Death of Mason 
—His character— Failure of the colony of ]Mason and Gorges— Reflections, 5 

CHAPTER II. 

Dover-Tlie Antiuomians— Eseter— Form of government a democracy— Antino- 
mian controversy in Massachusetts— Hampton-Government formed at Ports- 
mouth—At Dover— Constitution— Causes which led to the settlement of Exeter 
—The Puritans— Contest between them and the Antinomians, Henry Vane, 
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, Whcelwright-They are banished from Massachusetts 
—They come to Exeter— Tlioir doctrines— Calvin-Calvinism— Union with 
Massachusetts— Wheelwright— His interview with Oliver Cromwell— The con- 
federation— Passaconaway disarmed— The White Mountains explored— Neal 
searches their summits for gold-Descriplioii of them-Superstitious reverence 
of the Indians for their in visil'le inhabitants, 38 

CHAPTER III. 

Witchcraft at Portsmouth— In England and France— In Germany and Scotland- 
Trial of a witch— The Salem witchcraft— Conjectures as to the phenomena 
of witchcraft- Persecution of the duakers— Execution of Leddra, Robinson 
and Stevenson — Reflections, '^^ 

CHAPTER IV. 

War with the Indians— Passaconaway— His character— His dying speech— The 
Penacooks refuse an alliance with king Philip— Indian depredations— Fall of 
Philip-Waldron seizes the refugees liy straiagem-The Mohawks instigated to 
attack the eastern Indians— Union with Massachusetts dissolved— New Hamp- 
shire made a royal province— President Cults, 7C 



2 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Organization of the new government — Laws — Crimes^Courts — Militia— Dis- 
content of the people — Death of Cults — Cranfield — His character — Arbitrary 
measures— Gove's rebellion — He is sent to the tower of London — Persecution 
of Moody— Character of Moody — Riot at Exeter — Andros made governor-gene- 
ral — Revolution in England — Revolution in the colonies — Andros deposed — 
Union with Massachusetts — War with the Indians — Death of Waldron— Indian 
cruelty — Sufferings of the captives, . • 93 

CHAPTER YI. 

Conquest of Canada attempted — It fails — Governor Allen — Union witli Massachu- 
setts dissolved — Sir William Phipps — The small-pox first imported into New 
Hampshire — Peace with tlie Indians — The war resumed — Madokewando — 
Usher— Durliam destroyed — Peace — The return of the captives— The Earl of 
Bellomont — His character — His death — Death of Allen — War between France 
and England — Dudley — His conference with the Indians — Indian depredations 
— Expedition against Port Royal — It fails — Congress of delegates — Second ex- 
pedition against Port Royal — It is successful — Death of Hilton— Expedition to 
Quebec — The fleet wrecked in the St. Lawrence — One thousand men perish — 
Peace — The captives return — Vaughan — John Wentvvorth — Industry revives — 
Monopoly resisted — Gov. Shute holds a conference with the Indians on an island 
in the Kennebec — The Scottish emigrants— Their character, . . . 109 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Aurora Borealis seen for the first time in New England in 1721 — Inoculation 
first used as an antidote to the small-pox — War with the Indians — The Jesuit 
missionaries— Father Rasle — his labors — his death and cl.aracter — War with 
the Indians— Tlie family of Hanson — Captain Lovcwell— Last battle with the 
Indians at Lovewell's Pond — Defeat and death of Lovewell— Description of the 
battle-ground and the scenery in the valley of the Saco— Departure of Ihe Pena- 
cooks — Boundary dispute — Settlement of Concord — Triennial act — Burnet — 
Belcher — Death of Wentwortli — his character — Dunbar— Contest between the 
friends of the union with Massachusetts and the advocates of a separate gov- 
ernment—Boundary dispute — continues — decided in favor of New Hampshire — 
Benning Wentworth appointed governor — Sickness in New Hampshire — Intelli- 
gence — Morals — Schools — George Whitefield — comes to New Hampshire — his 
eloquence — his character, .132 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Expedition to Cape Breton— William Pepperell — Siege and fall of Louisburg — 
Vaughan — War with the Indians — Settlement wilh the Masonian proprietors — 
Defence of Number-Four liy Capt. Stevens — Contest concerning the Vermont 
lands — Stark — France resolves to connect Canada wilh Louisiana — Union of the 
colonies for defence — Congress of delegates meet at Albany — Campaign of 175.5 
— Defeat of Braddock — Washington — The Rangers— Expedition to Crown Point 
— Massacre at Fort Willam Henry— Montcalm — Pitt- Attack upon the fortress 
of Ticonderoga — The English repulsed — Quebec — Expedition again.?t the St. 
Francis Indians — Destruction of tlieir village — Disasters of the Rangers — Con- 
quest of Canada completed — The Rangers — Unsuccessful attempt of the Indians 
to exterminate the English — N. H. Gazette — Progress of seltlement — Contest 
between New York and New Hampshire for the lands of Vermont — The Revo- 
lution dawning, . . . 161 



CONTENTS. 3 



CHAPTER IX. 

Administration of Pitt— Taxation — Stamp act — Duties — Deliates in Parliament 
— Excitement occasioned by the stamp act — Stamp distributor at Portsmouth 
compelled to resign — Riots in other colonies — Threatened destruction of tea at 
Portsmouth— Removal of Gov. Wentworlh, and appointment of John Went- 
worth — Assault upon fort William and Mary, led by Langdon and Sullivan — 
Ammunilioii and cunuou removed by the provincials — Battle of Concord and 
Lexington — A convention called at Exeter — Governor Wenlworth recommends 
reconciliation — Royal government dissolved in New Hampshire — Boston be- 
sieged by liie provineials^Battle of Bunker's Hill — Death of Warren and Mc- 
Clarv — Whigs and tories — Formation of a state government in New Hampshire 
— Adoption of a constitution — Meshech Ware, president— New Hampshire fits 
out a ship of war— Lan 1 forces — Expedition to Canada — Sullivan meets the 
army retreating— New Hampshire resolves on a declaration of independence — 
Public sentiment — Burgoync advances into Vermont — Battles of Bennington and 
Stillwater — General Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island — Surrender of Corn- 
wallis — Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United Colonies — 
^Yashington retires to Mount Vernon, 211 



CHAPTER X. 

Depreciation of continental money — Efforts of Congress to prevent the deprecia- 
tion — Proscription of persons and confiscation of estates — Constitution proposed 
— rejected by the people — Another proposed — Revolt of sixteen towns — Mone- 
tary distress — Insurrection — the insurgents made prisoners — Union of the states 
— Convention of delegates at Philadelphia — The Federal Constitution — sub- 
mitted to the people — Convention assembles at Exeter to ratify the Federal 
Constitution — Conflicting opinions — Joshua Atherton's speech against the adop- 
tion of the Constitution — It is finally ratified — Washington chosen President of 
the United States — John Langdon elected President of New Hampshire — Wash- 
ington visits New Hampshire — Progress of settlements — Increase of population 
— Support of common schools — Education — Establishment of post offices — State 
debts — Revision of the State Constitution — Josiah Barltett — Formation of par- 
ties — Republicans — Feileralists — Depreciation of paper money — The privateer 
ship M'Clary — Case of the prize ship Susanna — Remonstrances against the acts 
of the general government — Jay's treaty — Progress of settlements — Lake Wiu- 
nipiseogee — A medical school established — Troubles with France — Laws for the 
observance of the Sabbath — Death of Washington — Administration of John 
Adams — Organization of parties — Manufactures — Coos county — Scenery around 
the mountaias, 266 

CHAPTER XI. 

Samuel Livermore — Matthew Thornton— Amendment of the federal constitution 
— Ascendency of the republican party — Laws — District schools — Iron mines — 
Franconia mountain scenery — The notch — Mount Lafayette — The basin — The 
flume— The Old Man of the Mountain, or Profile rock — Ascent of Mt. Lafay- 
ette — Execution of Burnham at Haverhill — Removal of the seat of government to 
Concord— Commerce of Portsmouth — The effect of the embargo, the war of 1812, 
and other causes — Right of search — Orders in council — French decrees — The 
embargo— it is unpopular— The federal party again in the ascendency — George 
Sullivan — -Aggressions of Great Britain — War becomes a probable event— Mes- 



4 CONTENTS. 

sage of Governor T,a!igr!on— Debates in the senate and house— Speech of Gil- 
maii— Speech of Parrolt— Lotteries— Banks— Election of William Plummer— 
his war message — Preparations for war— Madi.son calls an extra session of con- 
gress — Increase of the army and navy— The militia called out— Campaign of 
1812 — Daniel Webster — Progress of the war — Campaign of 1813 — Change in 
the judiciary— Great fire at Portsmouth— Campaign of 1814— Battle of Chip- 
pewa— Battle of Bridgwater— Miller— M'Niel— Weeks— Machinations of the 
federal party— Battle of New Orleans— Peace— Debates in the legislature- 
Speech of Mr. Handerson— Speech of Mr. Parrott— Gov. Plummer's message- 
Change in the judiciary— Richardson— Bell— Woodbury— Pierce— Release of 
. the poor prisoners — Project of a canal — Western emigration, . . . 327 



CHAPTER XII. 

Controversy witli Darlmoutli College— Message of Governor Plummer — The state 
assumes jurisdiction — The trustees refuse to submit to the law — they are sum- 
moned to meet at Hanover — A quorum do not obey the summons — they declare 
the law unconstitutional — Second message of Governor Plummer — Wheelock 
re-appointed president — Charges against the professors — their address to the 
public-'Death of President Wheelock — Trial of llie Dartmouth college case — 
Arguments of counsel — Opinion of Chief Justice Richardson— overruled by the 
supreme court of the U. S. — President Monroe— The tuleration act— Toleration 
in Connecticut — Bill of rights — Act of 1701 — Vexatious lawsuits brought 
against dissenters — Toleration in Maryland and Vermont, Pennsylvania and 
Maine — Speech of Dr. AYhipple — Bill of rights— Speech of Dr. Whipple — Speech 
of Henry Hubbard — Dr. Whipple in reply to Mr. Parker — Speech of Ichabod 
Bartlett — The toleration act is assailed — it passes — is again assailed violently — 
finally becomes popular — The Methodists — The Baptists — The Universalists — 
Scenery of New Hampshire — Ascent up Mooschillock mountain — Owl's Head — 
Scenes in the valley of the Connecticut — View from Moosebillock — ^from Cata- 
mount hill — from Haverhill corner — from mouul Pulaski — Appearance of an 
American forest in autumn — Route to the While Hills from Haverhill through 
Bethlehem and Fraiiconia — from Lancaster — The Notch — Valley of the Saco — 
Scenery about Indian Stream and the cotinlry near the Magalloway--Dixvi!le 
Notch 393 



HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER 1. 

Introdcction. — The red race — TJie first settlers of New Hampshire, their 
character — The Scottish emigrants — Cohimbus — Early voyages — The 
Cabots — Discoveries of Jhe English, French, and Portuguese — Conquests 
of the Spaniards— North American Indians— Discovery of 'New Hamp- 
shire — Smith — His character — Mason and Gorges — Sir Walter Raleigh — 
Landing at Tortsmouth — Melancholy decay of the Indians — Search for 
gold — Description of the country— Attempt to introduce the feudal sys- 
tem into New Hampshire — Death of Mason — His character— Failure of 
the colony of Mason and Gorges — Reflections. 

The origin of American history is not found in chap 
the region of fjihulous legend. Its beginning and _J[^^, 
progress are distinctly known. The people of the 
United States are acquainted with their earliest 
ancestors, and with all the succeeding generations. 
They cannot, like the Romans, consecrate their 
origin, or rank the founders of the Republic with 
the gods. Nor have they built, like the nations of 
modern Europe, over the ruins offallen greatness. 
They inhabit a new world — a world conquered from 
barbarians but yesterday, and subdued by civili- 
zation to-day — a world which has begun to witness 
the birth and growth, but not the decay and death, 
of nations. No ancient empire has risen or moul- 
dered away within these limits. Except the red 
race, of doubtful origin and melancholy fate, 
America has no " surviving memorials of the 



6 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, past." Here are no magnificent and picturesque 
.^.^i^ ruins — no stupendous monuments of forgotten skill 
— no curious relics of lost arts, the history and 
birth of which are in dispute. Here were neither 
high dukes nor mighty carls — neither a nobilit}', a 
banditti, nor a priesthood. Yet American history 
would be a treasure, if it could offer to the world 
nothing but the name of Washington. Massachu- 
setts would be honorod, if it were only for the 
genius of Franklin. New Hampshire will not be 
forgotten while she preserves the memory of Stark. 
The Jirst settlers of New Hampshire were a few 
merchant adventurers. They were not distin- 
guished for literature or religion. They did not 
come, like the pilgrims, 

Breaking •• the depths of the desert's gloom 
With their hymns of lofty cheer." 

Yet they were, like them, a bold and hardy few. 
Forsaking their English homes in quest of better 
fortune, they opened a path over the ocean, and 
chose the wildest solitudes of nature for the scene 
of their experiment. Their energy and perse- 
verance, their fortitude and courage, made them 
the terror of the Indians, and fitted them lor the 
struggles of freeilom against oppression. They 
were obliged to fight and conquer a savage foe. 
They gained their subsistence by a constant Mar- 
fare against the obstacles of nature. They went 
out to the field of toil with arms in their hands. 
While with their axes they bowed the woods, their 
firelocks leaned against the nearest trees. Their 
swords hung at their sides. In the character of 
these men avarice and roin.irrce were blended. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 7 

After them came a band of the persecuted, chap. 
They were driven from a neighboring colony* „ ^ 
"for conscience sake." These shared the perils 
of the others. Their character took its impress 
from the troubled scenes in which their lives were 
passed. Their days, also, were devoted to the 
fields of toil and battle. Their descendants were 
nurtured from childhood in the midst of hardships. 
They were taught in the school of adversity. 
Resolution, firmness of purpose, and patient en- 
durance impress themselves on their character and 
mark their history. 

The next and most brilliant period of New 
Hampshire colonization is that which is connected 
with the history of Scotland. The border ro- 
mances, the songs of the bard, the Covenanter's 
honest faith, and all the proud recollections and 
glorious memories of the land of Burns, were to be 
transported to the wild woods of New Hampshire. 
They came with the settlers of Londonderry. 

In one thing the companies of the emigrants 
were all agreed. They founded government on 
the natural equality of men. They trusted to find 
all the duties growing out of civil society enforced 
and performed by the popular will. They believed 
that all the rights of man may be secured and en- 
joyed by a government purely elective and free. 
It is the province of history to hand down to pos- 
terity the evidence of their efforts and their suc- 
cess. I shall begin the narrative with the dis- 
covery of America. 

On the fourteenth of October, at dawn of day, 1492. 
Columbus led his followers to the shores of the 

* Massachusetts. 



Oct. 14. 



8 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, new world. The brilliant court of Spain received 
__!_^ the news with transports of joy, and chanted " Te 
Deum* " for the discovery of a continent. But the 
great navigator sunk to the grave in neglect, while 
the world was yet unconscious of the nature and 
the merit of his services. . A jealous rivalf had 
sent him home from the theatre of his achieve- 
ments, loaded with fetters. He could solace him- 
self only by the consciousness of integrity, and by 
reflecting upon the great things he had performed. 
An illiberal envy attended his whole career. 

Many were struck with a sense of the great 
actions of Columbus. Many more were touched 
with sentiments of veneration and pity ;| but no 
one appeared as the avenger of his wrongs. The 
empress Isabella, his patroness, preceded him to 
the tomb, and when she was gone, there was none 
left to redress his injuries. He was doomed to em- 
ploy the little remainder of his days in fruitless 
solicitation to Ferdinand, for the punishmeiit of 
his oppressors and the restoration of his privileges. 
Vain effort ! The heartless monarch amused with 
unmeaning promises the man who had added a 
world to his dominions. 

Meanwhile, the health of Columbus declined. 
The ingratitude of his sovereign, whose reign he 
had rendered illustrious, wounded his generous 
spirit, and at length, exhausted by hardships, and 
heart-broken by being deceived in his expectations, 
he ended his days, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. 

He was buried at Valadolid, leaving an admir- 

* Irving. f Bovadilla. 

X Among these was Alonso del Val'ejo, the Captain of the vessel, on board 
which Columbus was conJined. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 9 

ing world to reap the fruits of the most memorable chap. 

EXPERIMENT that liumaii genius ever planned or -_ 

performed. 

The voyage of Columbus, while it filled Europe 
with astonishment, excited England to emulate the 
glory of Spain. In less than two years after his 
return, Henry VIII. invested John Cabot, a 1495. 
Venetian merchant, and his son Sebastian, with ^5'^'^'' 
the command of an armament, destined to explore 
unknown regions. 

The chief object of Cabot was to reach India by 
the shortest course. He embarked at Bristol, and 1497. 
sailing due west, discovered an island, which the May. 
sailors called Newfoundland, and, in a few days Jimeai 
after, a smaller one, which he named St. Johns. 
He landed on both and brought off several of the 
natives. Continuing his course westward, he 
reached the continent at Labrador, and sailed alonsr 
the coast as far south as Virginia. 

Thus England was the second nation that 
ventured to visit the Nev/ World, and the first that 
discovered the continent of America. The Cabots, 
like Columbus, derived little benefit from their 
genius and maritime skill. They gave a continent 
to England, and were reverenced as the most re- 
markable men of their day. History preserves the 
fact, among the few incidents of their career, that the 
mean jealousy which pursued Columbus, when 
thwarted by his death, did not fail to seek out the 
luminous track of the Cabots and pursue them. 

The scheme of finding a shorter passage to the 
Indies was twice resumed under the reign of Hen- 
ry VIII. But neither voyage was successful, and 
both were disastrous. The fisheries on the banks 
2 



10 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of NeAvfoimdland were an object of attention in the 

. ^_ reign of Edward VI.; and the prospect of opening 

a communication with China and the Spice Islands, 
without doubhng the Cape of Good Hope, con- 
tinued to allure the English. 

France and Portugal, also, resolved to compete 
with England and Spain. Gaspar Cortereal, 
under the patronage of the king of Portugal, 
1501. ranged the coast of America for six hundred miles," 
ioOS. and Francis I., of France, excited, perhaps, by the 
stories of some savages f from the north-eastern 
coast, sent John Verazzani, a Florentine, to explore 
Jan 17 ^^^^ west. It is worthy of remark, that the repub- 
lics of Italy furnished all the great captains, who, 
under the patronage of foreign kings, made the 
early voyages to America. In the benefits or evils 
of those voyages Italy was destined to have rto 
share. 

The reign of Henry VIII. was unfavorable to 
discovery ; and a period of more than sixty years 
elapsed, during which the sovereigns of England 
gave but little attention to the country which was 
to add so much opulence to their crown. Yet the 
spirit of adventure did not slumber. Voyages con- 
tinued to be undertaken by companies and private 
adventurers. Merchants fitted out ships, and gave 
them to the conduct of the ablest captains. Though 
the voyages Avere seldom profitable to the projectors, 
yet, the sphere of English navigation was enlarged 
and the shores of North America became known. 
Hitherto no settlements had been attempted. 

The French were forward in these enter- 

* Bancroft's History United Slates. I. 14. 
t Bancroft, I. 15. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. H 

prises.* They were early awake to the glory of chap 
discovery, eager for gain — emulous to excel. _,^_. 
Eighty-six years from the date of Columbus' first 1^^^- 
voyage, they had a hundred and fifty vessels at New- 
foundland, and in 1609 one French mariner had made 
more than forty voyages to the American coast. f 

While the English and French extended their 
discoveries over the north, the active spirits of 
Spain rushed to the more favored regions of Mex- 
ico and Peru. Cortez, Pizarro and Almagro 
were leading their followers to the climes of the 
New World. Mad with the passion for gold, they 
swept like a whirlwind through half-civilized hordes 
of natives, and gathered their booty amidst the 
ruins of cities. Their love of riches was equalled 
only by their contempt for industry. They hurried 
the Indians in crowds to the mountains, and forced 
them, with merciless rigor, to the fatal toil of the 
mines. Inflexible pride, determined valor, and 
deliberate atrocity marked their whole career of 
conquest and oppression. It was a union of ava- 
rice, fanaticism and chivalry. These three ele- 
ments combined, gave rise to those amazing efforts 
of mind and body, before which the efleminate 
idolaters of South America fell and disappeared. 
Desolation marked the footsteps of the Spaniards. 
The native emperors, incas, and people were in- 
volved in common destruction. Never were courage, 
fortitude and valor devoted to more sordid, unjust 
and barbarous ends. Never was genius more 
powerfully employed to scourge mankind. 

* See Bancroft's account of the voyages of Cartier, Robcrval, and Chau- 
vin, I. 18—25. 
t Bancroft, I. 21. 



12 " HISTORY OF 

The paganism of the natives had allured to the 
invasion a few of the old bigots of Spain ; and it 
is sadly instructive to mark these champions of 
the cross, trampling, in the name of religion, upon 
the most sacred rights, and giving glory to God, 
amidst the destruction of life and the desolation of 
empire. The expeditions of Cortez and Pizarro 
terminated in the conquest of Mexico and Peru. 
The simple natives had been nearly exterminated. 
But a golden harvest had fallen into the lap of 
Spain. Ignorant of political science, the Spanish 
monarchy greeted this accession of treasure as the 
fruition of hope and the strength of empire. His- 
tory celebrated the achievements of the adven- 
turers, and the poetic genius of Spain invested them 
with a romantic interest. They knew not how 
weak is a throne resting upon golden pillars. 
They had not seen how strong may be a govern- 
ment enthroned in the hearts of the people. 

From the golden seed that was sown in Europe 
time ripened a bitter harvest. When it expand- 
ed to fruit, liberty, prosperity and industry died 
in Spain. The Cortes ceased to assemble ; public 
virtue expired ; and long before a century had run 
its round, it was apparent that the glory of ancient 
Castile had departed forever. 

Far different was the effect of English and 
French colonization on the northern shores of 
America. The action of the United States and the 
Old World upon each other forms the noblest fea- 
ture in their history and ours. We have trans- 
planted arts, manners and languages. They are 
transplanting liberty and the art of government. 

The history of colonization has always been a 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 13 

dark history. Whatever may have been the pro- 
fessed motives of the founders of colonies, their 
progress has been destructive to the native inhabi- 
tants. It is not improbable that the early voyagers 
to the North American coast possessed much of 
the rapacious spirit which deluged Peru with blood. 
Portugal had long since decided that human flesh 
was an article of traffic ; and in conformity with 
this, the natives were sometimes kidnapped. Here 
and there an instance is recorded in history. But 
there were causes operating to restrain the rapac- 
ity of the northern voyagers within very narrow 
limits. First, there was a dearth of gold in all the 
northern regions. Secondly, the natives of the 
North were strong and warlike ; those of Mexico 
and Peru were comparatively languid and effem- 
inate. Like all the inhabitants of the torrid zone, 
they yielded their independence with but a feeble 
struggle. Cortez confessed that he relied on noth- 
ing so much as the w^eakncss of his enemies. But 
the natives of the north were men of robust con- 
stitutions. They were hostile and jealous. When 
they were first induced to traffic in their furs» they 
demanded, in exchange, knives and weapons of 
steel.* They remembered injuries, and cancelled 
them in blood. The northern Indian never forgot 
to tell the story of his wrongs to his children, and 
they told it again to theirs, to the latest generation. 
But among the northern tribes there were marked 
distinctions. While the Mohawks, the Pequots, 
and the Tarateens of the far cast were fierce, and 
courted war, the Delawares, and the Penacooks 
of the 3Ierrimack, refused to shed the blood of 

Bancroft, I. 17. 



14 HISTORY OF 

CHAP Englishmen. Tlic Indians of New Hampshire were 

^^.^^ generally inclined to peace. Even when cheated 

of their lands, and insulted, they, in many cases, 

forhore to resent it, and often retired quietly before 

the advancing waves of emigration. 

Conspicuous among the northern voyagers to 
America, was Captain John Smith — a name that 
will he forever associated with the noblest achieve- 
ments in navigation. He was the founder of colo- 
nies — the father of states. It was he who first 
explored the coast of New Hampshire and the 
1614. beautitul harl)()r of the Piscataqua. Withtwoships 
he ranged the shore from Penobscot to Cape Cod, 
and, returning to Englnnd, presented a map of the 
country to the young prince Charles. Though it is 
certain that European vessels had visited the coast 
before, though, for thirty years at least, European 
traders and fishermen had coasted along the whole 
line of New Hampshire, for the sake of its furs 
and its fish, yet nothing remains, even in tradition, 
to show that they ever entered the mouth of the 
Piscataqua, or landed upon the banks, or the shores 
of tlie sea. 
• While history retains a record of the generous 

affection of Pocahontas, the name of Smith can- 
not be lost ; and if we search the annals of the 
world, there are few whose adventures would lend 
greater charms to history or to fiction. Though born 
to a competence, he is found at a very early age 
embarking on the ocean. From his childhood he 
was a rover. When but thirteen years of age 
he sold his school books and satchel to obtain 
money to go j)rivately to sea ; and from that time 
his whole career was one continued romance. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 15 

Whether we view him embarking for Italy, with chap. 
"a rabble of pilgrims," mounting the deadly _-l^ 
breach at Regal, fighting hand to hand with the 
Turks in the armies of Austria, wandering in the 
deserts of Circassia, conducted a prisoner in the 
country of the Cambrian Tartars, passing over 
into Africa, and visiting the Court of Morocco, or 
surveying the wild coast of New Hampshire, he 
appears everywhere to be equally remarkable for 
his eccentric genius, and his strange fortunes. 
After passing through a variety of military ser- 
vice, we find him, in 1607, in Virginia. The 
desponding minds of the colonists are turned to 
him as the only man who can extricate them from 
impending danger. He instantly adopts the only 
plan which can save them from destruction. He 
repels the hostile savages, and obtains for the 
colony the most abundant supplies.* When sur- 
prised, and taken captive, his eminent faculties do 
not desert him. He desires to speak with the Sa- 
chem. He presents him with a mariner's com- 
pass. He points out to the admiring savage the 
magical play of the needle. He expatiates on the 
shape of the earth, the vastness of the sea, the 
course of the sun, and the order of the seasons. 
Subdued by the influence of wonder, the Indians 
suspend their purpose. Opecancanaugh gazes 
with amazement, and, holding up the compass in 
his hand, gives the signal of reprieve. From 
that moment the Indians regarded Capt. Smith with 
a superstitious awe ; and when the Great Spirit 
" shut up the clouds," they sent to Jamestown to 
entreat that he would pray for rain. But though 

* Graharae's History United States, I., 50, 53. 



16 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, he delayed his fate by this stratagem, it did not 
.^_^ procure his release. Yet they regarded him as an 
illustrious prisoner; and it was resolved to refer his 
destiny to Powhatan. This ferocious king in- 
stantly adjudged him to sufter death,* and ordered 
that his head be beat to pieces with clubs. His 
self-possession did not forsake him. He had dis- 
covered that Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of 
Powhatan, regarded him with aftection. When the 
appointed hour of death arrived, a large stone was 
placed before the king, and the executioners stood 
round it with clubs in their hands. f Captain Smith 
was then conducted to the spot, his head laid upon 
the stone, and the men prepared with their clubs 
to beat out his brains. | Amidst these dreadful 
preparations, Pocahontas stood with the crowd of 
women that surrounded the executioners. When 
she saw him dragged, defenceless and bound, but 
still struggling, to the place of execution, she gave 
way to loud lamentation. But the savage king was 
inexorable, and the chief executioner began to lift 
his club to strike, when Pocahontas rushed with 
mournful distraction to the stone, and clasping the 
victim's head in her arms, proffered her own to re- 
ceive the blow.§ At this gush of feeling, Pow- 
hatan relented. He dismissed the executioners, and 
pronounced the prisoner's pardon. Twice had 
death been strangely deferred ; but Captain Smith 
now gained from Powhatan, not only his life, but a 
quantity of provisions sutHcient to keep the colony 
from starving. When charged with sedition by 
the Virginians, it appeared, on investigation, that 

* Smitlf s Hist. Vir., Ibl. eil., I., p. 'ly. t Cainpbeir.s Hist. Vir., p. "9. 

X Bulk's Hist. Vir., I., p. 113, 114. <j Smith's Hist. Vir., fol. ed., I., p. 49. 



IS E\V HAMPSHIRE. 17 

his only offence consisted in " the possession of chap. 
enviable qnalities."* ^ 

It was from the story of this remarkable naviga- 
tor, that the nortltern shore of America first 
attracted the notice of the unfortunate Charles. 
He bestowed upon it the name of New England. 
But while Smith was returning to his sovereign 
with the fruits of his discoveries, an act of perfidy 
was consummated by his lieutenant, which planted 
the sting of resentment deep in the savage heart. 
Thomas Hunt, who remained in charge of a ship 
v>'hich Smith left behind him on his return to Enff- 
land, far from conciliating the natives by acts of 
hospitality, decoyed twenty of them on board, 
cautiously hoisted his sails before they wdre aware, 
hurried out to sea, and sold them for slaves in 
Malaga. Thus, without an injury to provoke him, 
or a show of hostility, the white man hurled at the 
Indian all the horrors of slavery and the slave 
trade. In vain would history seek to apologize for 
so perfidious a deed. It could spring only from 
that fierce and cruel avarice which has robbed 
Africa of her children, and entailed upon America 
the curse of slavery and the scoffs of the world. 

The country discovered by Captain Smith soon 
became of importance. Humor magnified its ad- 
vantages, and greedy credulity deemed none of its 
wonders too extraordinary for belief. Its lofty 
mountains, its forests of timber, its lakes, its nu- 
merous rivers and enchanted isles, dimly appearing 
in the distance, caught the eye of adventure and 
invited many, even of the nobility, to take active 
measures to promote its settlement. 

^ Bancroft, History United States, vol. I., page 125. 

3 



8. 



18 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, v>ere 

T 

.-^^-w constituted, by the sole authority of the king of 
England, a council "for the planting, ruhng, and 
erovernin^ of New Ensrland in America."* Among 
these were Ludowick, duke of Lenox, the mar- 
quises of Buckingham and Hamilton, and the earls 
of Pembroke, Arundel, Bath, Southampton, Sal- 
isbury, and War'>Yick. Various and strange Vv'ere 
the motives which, at that day, led these noblemen 
to project settlenients in the New World. Vision- 
ary ideas ever mingle with the spirit of discovery. 
Farm- They wcrc made a corporation with perpetual suc- 
knap,V cession, by election of the majority ; and their 
territories extended from the fortieth to the forty- 
eighth degree of northern latitude. The patent, 
or charter, which the king gave this company, was 
their warrant of authority, and was the foundation 
of all the grants made, of the couniry of New 
England, until by its odious monopoly it was com- 
plained of as " a grievance of the kingdom," and 
surrendered to the crovvu Thus tlie first govern- 
ing power exercised over New England was that 
CORPORATE power, wliich has often given a spring 
to enterprise, and as often threatened to overthrow 
those principles of civil liberty which first led the 
fathers of New England to her rocky shores. 

In the council of Plymouth there were two men 
whose fame belongs to New Hampshire. These 
w^ere Ferdinando Gorges, and Capt. John Mason. 
Gorges was a man of active genius and dauntless 
enterprise. He had been at the court of Eliza- 
beth,! and was a companion of Sir Walter Raleigh 

* Hubbard's New England; p. SO. Hume's History of England. 
t Hume. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 19 

— one of the most renowned and attractive names chap. 

in English story — admitted to be a miiversal genius, '.^ 

a warrior both on land and sea, an orator, a phi- 
losopher, an historian, a poet, an architect, an 
elegant courtier, a bold projector, a founder of 
colonies — equally active and great in all — distin- 
guished for the most enviable success and the most 
pitiable reverses of fortune ; raised to the highest 
pinnacle of favor by the greatest female sovereign 
of England,* and perishing at last on the scaffold ; 
yet appearing upon the historian's page in glorious 
association with the most illustrious names of 
England. No man of that age exhibited so much 
vigor of mind, with so much versatility of talent > 
Nature seemed to have fitted him equally well for 
study or for action. There was hardly a subject 
which his pen did not touch, or a field of enterprise, 
however hazardous, which his adventurous foot did 
not enter. Gorges was full of the restless spirit 
of his great companion. After the peace of 1604, 
the king had appointed him governor of Plymouth, 
in England. He soon grew weary of the quiet 
round of official duty. He had heard vague stories 
of the new world, and was burning to embark on 
a voyage of discovery, when accident flung in his 
way a new cause of excitement. A captain in 
search of a northwest passage, brought into Ply- 
mouth five natives of America. f Gorges eagerly 
seized threej of them, and kept them in his service 
three years. He listened with enthusiasm to their 

« Queen Elizabclh. t Gorges, p. 21. 

f "These I seized," says Gorges. "Their names ^vere Manida, Skeltwar- 
roes, and Tasqixantnm. They were all of one nation, but of severall parts, 
and severall families.'" — Gorges' description of New England, p. 2. 



20 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, half articulate tales of a country abounding in 
_i^ rivers, islands, fisheries, and stately woods. He* 
learned from them the number, force, disposition, 
and government of the natives, their customs, and 
modes of warfare. He made them trace in rude 
outline on the sand, the figure of the country; 
what mountains rose in it ; what great rivers ran 
up into the land ; what tribes and chieftains dwelt 
upon their banks. Naturally sanguine, his imagin- 
ation kindled at the tales they told, and he began 
to estimate the profits of discovery. In Captain 
Mason, he found a kindred spirit ; his inferior in 
acquirements, his equal in credulity, courage, and 
selfishness. Mason was a London merchant, but his 
roving fancy led him to enter the navy. After the 
peace, he was made governor of Newfoundland, and 
came out to America. On his return to Eng- 
land, he was elected a member of the Plymouth 
Council. From the cold island of Newfoundland 
he had looked with covetous desire towards the 
more southern lands of New England, and con- 
ceived the most extravagant ideas of the facilities 
they aflbrded for immediate wealth. He was not 
j(52i long in procuring from the Council a grant of all 
the land from the river of Naumkeag, now Salem, 
round Cape Ann, to the river Merrimac, and up 
each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof; 
then to cross over from the head of the one to the 
head of the other ; with all the islands lying within 
three miles of the coast. This was called the dis- 
trict of Mariana. But circumstances had now 
brought Mason and Gorges together ; for the 
former had become secretary, and the latter presi- 

* Gorges, p. 4. 



N E W 11 A 31 r S H I R E . 21 

dent of the Council. They resolved to unite their chap. 
fortmies. Accordingly, the next year, a grant was _1_ 
procured, by Gorges and Mason jointly, of the ^^^^• 
province of Laconia. This comprised all the land 
between the rivers Merrirnac and Sagadahock, 
extending back to the great lakes and the river of 
Canada.* 

They now set to work, with characteristic vigor, 
to people the vast region they had bought. Will 
not after events show that in this their courage and 
resolution were more conspicuous than their gain? 
In the spring of the following year, they sent over 1623. 
some fish-mongers of London, with " a number 
of other people in two divisions." These were to 
establish a colony and fishery at the mouth of the 
Pascataqua. They arrived in safety. They had 
brought with them tools of various kinds and were 
well supplied with provisions. One party landed 
on the southern shore, and called the place Little 
Harbor. t From tlie name of Strawberry Bank, 
which they gave to the spot where Portsmouth 
now stands, a late historian infers that they touched 
the shore before mid-summer, and that a profusion 
of strawberry-blossoms, or fruit, welcomed their 
arrival. t They hastily erected salt-works, and 
nn<^§ iMK^Io hnnso vvns quickly prepared. The Other 
party of emigrants went eight miles farther up the 
river and sat down at Dover. || 

Thus came the first fathers to New ILimpshire. 
It is now to be seen with what spirit they will bear 
up against the rugged poverty of the soil, the in- 

* The St. Lawrence. f F. Belknap, p. 4. :j: Whiton, p. 1. 

^ Adam.s's Annals of Portsmouth, p. 10. 

II At first named Norlham, afterwards Dover. 



22 li I S T R Y F 

CHAP hospitable severity of the climate, and the opposi- 

'^^ tion of the surrounding Indians. Five thousand 

rude tenants of the woods then sufficed to inhabit 
a state which civilization has since peopled with 
nearly three hundred thousand souls. A small 
tribe dwelt at Exeter, another at Dover, and a 
third, the Pascataquas, on the banks of that river. 
The Ossipees roamed round the Winnipissiogee* 
and Ossipee lakes, and the Pequawkets dwelt on 
the upper branches of the Saco. The Penacooks 
lived on the beautiful lands around Concord, along 
the banks of the Merrimac; and the hunting- 
grounds of the Coos Indians extended through 
Grafton county and upward, over the meadows 
of Lancaster,! to the head waters of the Connecti(5ut. 
These confederated nations were distinguished by 
the general name of Pawtuckets, and were subject 
to the mild sway of the sachem Passaconaway. 
lie was old, had never seen a white man before, 
and was reverenced as the father and supreme 
head of the people. Peaceful and happy tribes ! 
How soon ybu arc destined to perish! You will 
fall, like leaves scattered by an autumnal blast. 
Civilization and barbarism have met together. Is 
it doubtful that the former will gain the mastery? 
Civilization and barbariwiii! IIu>v nilghij arc the 
energies of the one ; how poor and powerless the 
other ! At the mention of civilization, the tri- 
umphs of science rise before the mind, and all 
nature is seen made tributary to the wants and the 
fancy of men. At the mention of barbarism, the 
mind is ta*ansported to the solitudes of the forest. 
Woman is the slave of the wigwam, and man, far from 

* Whiton, p. S. t Oil Israel's river. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 23 

being the conqueror of nature, is only left free to chap. 
follow her and appears to be her simple child. Art ...^..J^ 
binds him with no shackles. Society imposes no 
restraints. He consults no adviser but inclination. 
He roams or reposes at will. 

The simple natives received the little band of 
emigrants with friendship. It would have been 
easy to exterminate them; but they welcomed 
them with hospitality, for the children of the w^oods 
looked not to consequences. The Indians have 
now disappeared, and every memorial of them 
is lost, save when the ploughshare or the water- 
course dishumes some skeleton form or buried 
implement of the hunter, and reminds the present 
generation of their ill-fated predecessors. Thus 
a whole peculiar people have perished forever. 

The first years of the little colony at Pascataqua 
furnish few events of interest, until 1628; when 1628. 
the colonists were surprised at meeting Indians in 
the woods of Dover, hunting with fire-arms. The 
sale of them had been forbidden and had not been 
suspected. It was soon discovered that they pur- 
chased guns and ammunition of a trader in the 
Massachusetts colony. The vendor w'as seized at 
Weymouth, and sent prisoner to England. But 
the Indianiiad already learned, w4th fatal skill, the 
use of fire-arms. He was charmed with an instru- 
ment of destruction so potent, when compared with 
his feeble arrow and bow. These weapons he 
soon learned to despise, and freely gave the richest 
products of the chase for a rifle. The colonists 
were made to rue, to the latest day, the dire con- 
sequences of the traffic at Weymouth. 

Near the close of the next year, Laconia was 1629. 



24 HISTORYOF 

CHAP, divided, probably* by mutual agreement,! between 
^,J^ Mason and Gorges. The wild region east of the 
Pascataqua was relinquished to Gorges, and took 
the name of Maine ; while the tract west of this 
river and extending back into the country sixty 
miles, was confirmed to Mason. The county of 
Hampshire, in England, had been the place of his 
residence, and to his extensive grant in the Nev/ 
World, he gave the name of New Hampshire. 

The Pascataqua settlement now advanced slowly. 
Apart of Mason's associates in the "Company 
of Laconia," for the better security of their inter- 
ests, obtained a grant of the township of Dover, 
while Mason himself procured a charter of Ports- 
mouth. Thus early the colonists were divided into 
two distinct communities, and were familiarly 
called the Upper and Lower Plantations. They 
were subject to different regulations, were carried 
on under different auspices, and w^ere afterwards 
two distinct governments, like independent states. 
The Dover plantation was under the patronage of 
the "west countrie" adventurers, and they ap- 
1631. pointed Thomas Wiggiii, their superintendent and 
agent. The lower plantation was under the pat- 
ronage of the London adventurers, and the first 
superintendent of Portsmouth, was Walter Neal. 
Tlie enterprise of the lower plantation soon whit- 
ened the harbor with a little fleet of shallops, fish- 
ing-boats, and skifis ; and while the English were 
busy with their lines, the Danish emigrants among 
them sawed lumber and made potash. Tlie few 
pieces of cannon ^^ hich the proprietors sent over 
to terrify the Indians, were placed at the northeast 

* F. Belknap, p. 8. f Whiton, p. 10. 



N E Vv 11 A 31 P S H I R E . 25 

point of the Great Island, on a high rock, about a chap. 
bow-shot from the shore. It was thought that "the ..^^ 
redoubhng noise of these great guns, rolhng in the 
rocks, would cause the Indians to betake themselves 
to flight." But the colonists were soon in dan- 
ger of turning this artillery against each other ; for 
when the agent of Dover took possession of a point 
of land at Newington, the agent of Portsmouth 
claimed it, and both parties, heated by dispute, 
prepared to appeal to arms. But at length they 
were persuaded to refer the dispute, for arbitration, 
to their employers ; and thus, without bloodshed, 
the place acquired the name of Bloody Point. 

Shortly after the termination of this dispute Neal 1632. 
was summoned to an expedition against the far- 
famed pirate. Dixy Bull. This daring marauder 
had appeared upon the coast and raised an alarm 
by taking several boats and rifling the fort at 
Pemaquid. Neal equipped four pinnaces and 
shallops, and being joined by twenty more from 
Boston, proceeded to Pemaquid to meet the enemy. 
But a storm arose, and tlie winds that separated 
his own barques drove the pirates beyond the 
reach of pursuit. He was obliged to put back in 
a shattered condition, and the Boston forces 
returned home. 

When the plantations appointed their agents, 
they declared their " severall businesses" to be, 
trade, fishery, salt-making, building and hus- 
bandry. These common pursuits, however, were 
not all. The meagre profits of the fisheries and 
salt-making were not sufficient to satisfy the 
desires of such men as 3Iason and Gorges. To 
search for gold was the great object of their errand 
4 



2Q HISTORY OF 

CHAP to America. Mason believed the country to be 
___ full of the precious metals concealed in mines. In 
this opinion he was not alone. 

Ever since the discovery of the New World was 
proclaimed in Europe, the strangest delusions filled 
the minds of men. America became at once the 
region of romance. Descriptions of it appeared 
in rapid succession, each presenting a new ac- 
cumulation of wonders. By these the people of 
Europe were completely infatuated. To them the 
western world was enchanted ground. Every 
island and lake were such as mankind had never 
dreamed of before. Every tree, and plant, and 
animal, assumed extraordinary forms and differed 
from those of the ancient hemisphere. Old Europe 
began to be despised, as too narrow, and seemed to 
offer to the heated imaoination nothing above me- 
diocrity. Columbus liimself, a man of sound 
understanding, declared that in America he had 
found the seat of paradise; and Ponce de Leon 
ranged, with his followers, through the Lucayo 
islands, in search of " the fountain of youth." 
The old were to become young, by bathing in its 
salutary waters. " Why do you quarrel," said a 
young cazique to the Spaniards, " about such a 
trifle as gold ? I will conduct you to a region 
where the meanest utensils are made of it." 

It was true that the natives of South America 
ignorantly wore the material from which the most 
precious jewels of Europe were made. The plun- 
derers of Mexico and Peru had actually returned 
laden with gold. Montezuma had exhausted his 
treasures to glut their rapacity. Their success 
had surpassed the wildest vision of the boldest 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 27 

imagination. It was everywhere extolled, and all chap. 
Europe began to dream of America as a land _.l^ 
where the sands sparkled with gold, and the earth 
was paved with glittering gems — where mountain 
and vale were brightly veined with silver, and 
crystal rivers glided over beds pebbled with dia- 
monds. While such were the fabulous tales, half 
believed in England, is it strange that Mason 
should have come to Portsmouth with the same 
visionary ideas of infinite wealth ? He knew that 
the Spaniards dug their gold from the mountains. 
New Hampshire was a region of mountains. 
Would fortune be less propitious in Laconia than 
in Mexico ? Why should he hesitate to adopt a 
conclusion to which he could so easily arrive by 
reasoning from analogy ? He did not hesitate ; 
and there were those among his followers vAio 
looked to Laconia as a region where nature would 
smile in eternal fertility and bloom — where wealth 
v/ould flow in upon them with the profusion of an 
ocean — where towns* and cities would rise as by 
a stroke of the enchanter's wand. 

It liad been described as containing- divers lakes, 
and extending back to a great lake and river in the 
country of the Iroquois. This river was said to be 
'< n falrc large river, well replcnisht with many 
fruitfull islands ; the ayr thereof is pure and wliol- 
some; the country pleasant, having some high 
hills full of goodly forrests and faire vallies and 
plaines fruitfull in corn, vines, chesnuts, wallnuts, 
and infinite sorts of other fruits, large rivers well 
stored with fish, and invironed with goodly mead- 
ows full of timber trees."! 

* Gorges, p. 31. f Gorges, p. 58. 



28 HISTORYOF 

In the great lake were said to be " 4 faire 
islands, which are low and full of goodly Woods 
and Meadows, having store of game for hunting, as 
Stagges, Fallow-Deer, Elkes, Roe-Bucks, Beavers 
and other sorts of Beasts, which come from the 
main land to the said Islands. The rivers which 
fall into the Lakes, have in them good store of 
Beavers, of the skins of which Beasts, as also of 
the Elkes, the Salvages make their chiefest Traf- 
fique. The said Islands have been inhabited here- 
tofore by the Salvages, but are now abandoned by 
reason of their late wars one with another. They 
contain twelve or fifteen leagues in length and are 
seated commodiously for habitation in the midst 
of the Lake, which abounds with divers kindes of 
wholsome Fish. From this lake run two rivers 
Southward, which fall into the Eastern and 
Southern Sea-coast of New England."* 

Such was the description of Laconia, penned by 
Gorges himself in the true style of adventure. The 
king of England and his ministers entertained ideas 
of it scarcely less exalted, for in the patent of New^ 
England, they took especial care to convey "the 
Mines, Mincralls, Quarryes, Shoares, Soyles, Wa- 
ters, Lakes, Fishings, Huntings, Fowlings, Com- 
modities, Hereditaments, Prerogatives, Rights, 
Jurisdictions, and Boyalties, Privileges, Fran- 
chises, Escheats, Liberties and Prochemiences."f 
But it is not from the testimony of Gorges alone, 
nor yet from the teclmical language of the patent, 
that the visionary hopes of the colonists are to be 
inferred. It appears from the letters of the Ports- 
mouth planters themselves, that " their views were 

* Gorges, p. 47. j Gorges, pp. 31—36. Patents of New England. 



N E W HAMPSHIRE. 29 

chiefly turned towards the discovery of lakes and cuav. 

mines." It also appears that tlicy expected to 

derive a considerable revenue from the culture of 
grapes. Tliey fell into the errors ^Yhich would 
naturally be committed by those who are at once 1633. 
sanguine and avaricious. Instead of subduing the 
forest, they penetrated into the earth. Instead of 
counting upon the natural growth of the colony, 
founded upon its apparent and well-known re- 
sources, they built their chief expectations upon 
the fortune of discovery. Agriculture they aban- 
doned for the uncertain and chance advantages of 
Indian trade and fishing, and for the cultivation of 
grapes. No mill was erected for grinding corn ; 
for " the colonists had none of their own to grind." 
Bread came from England in meal, except some 
corn and wheat, which were brought from Virginia 
and sent to the windmill at Boston to be ground.* 
Beef and corn they could have produced easily. 
But these were luxuries almost unknown to them. 
Tliey searched the earth for roots, and caught the 
wild game of the woods. At the end of ten years, 
so large had been their outlays and so small their 
returns, that the proprietors in England began to 
feel the supplies they furnished them to be a bur- 
den. The colonists themselves acknowledged that 
their golden hopes had failed. They did not in- 
crease in wealth or importance. No mines but 
those of iron were discovered, and these were not 
wrought. The lakes were not explored. The 
vines were planted,! but would produce nothing. -' 
The peltry trade with the Indians was of some 
value. So also were the fisheries. But neither 

* Prince's Annals, pp. 30, 70. f F. Belknap, p. 13. 



30 HISTORY OF 

CHAP of them yielded great profits. Meanwhile, by the 
_^^ neglect of agriculture, they made but scanty inroads 
upon the forest. Three or four houses only had 
been built within the first seven years. The fiiture 
gTew dark before them, and they began to be dis- 
couraged. Around them lay a repulsive and un- 
explored wildernes_s. In ten years of privation they 
had scarcely gained a foothold. Cut off from all 
that made life sweet, obliged to derive their sup- 
port from an unkind soil, they saw before them only 
the prospect of struggling forever with penury, 
sickness and the undying hostility of the Indians. 
At the thought of all this they became deeply de- 
pressed ; and the question arose whether they should 
cling to the sinking colony longer, or depart to 
some region of brighter prospect and fairer pro- 
mise. But the despondency of others only served 
to heighten, by contrast, the undaunted resolution 
of Mason and Gorges. It awoke them to still 
greater exertions, and bore them up through many 
a vain efibrt to diffuse courage and hope amidst 
the general despondency and gloom. They re- 
mained as sanguine as ever of success, and con- 
tinued to advance with alalbrity against obstacles 
which drove their followers to despair. So it is 
with men formed by nature for great undertakings. 
They evinced, by all their conduct, that they had 
come to America with minds not to be broken by 
misfortune or depressed by adversity. An obsti- 
nate, unyielding temper shone conspicuously in 
Mason ; and it was this that sustained his spirits 
unbroken, while dejection hung like a black 
cloud upon all around him. His wildly romantic 
ambition extended his views forward, to results so 



NEW HA3IPSIIIIIE. 3] 

mngnificont, and so refreshed his confidence that he chap 
ever saw his glory ripening, and chided the seem- .^-J^ 
ingly dim vision of his timid followers. But they 
were sullenly discontented, and most of them re- 
solved to remove. Some abandoned their lands 
wholly. Others sold their shares and departed. 
Thus Mason and Gorges became immediately the 
principal, if not the sole proprietors. The shares 
which had been relinquished, fell of course into 
their hands. Others they bought, until nearly the 
whole came to their possession. 

They now looked around for means to revive the 
drooping colony. They appointed Francis Wil- 1631. 
liams governor, and sent over from England a 
fresh supply of servants and materials for build- 
ing. 

Shortly after this time the Plymouth colony 163.5. 
surrendered their charter to the crown. It had 
been complained of as a monopoly, and Gorges, 
seeing it in jeopardy, resolved to appear in person 
and defend it. He arrived at Westminster and 
soon gained an audience. The house being re- 
solved into a committee, Sir Edward Colce in the 
chair, Gorges came forvv'ard to the bar.* Sir Ed- 
ward briefly explained to him that the charier of 
the Plymouth colony liad been complained of as a 
"grievance of the Commonwealth; also that it 
was a monopoly, and that the colour of planting a 
colony had been put upon it for particular ends 
and private gain;" all which the house were to 
look into and to minister justice to all parties. 
First of all, demanded Sir Edward Coke, (he 
charter must be brought into the house and de- 

* Gorge?, p. 23. 



32 HISTORY OF' 

CHAP. livered by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. To which that. 

-_^'-_ ardent hypocrite replied, in the canting tone of the 
day, — " For my own part," said he, " I am but a 
particular person, and inferior to many to whom the 
Pattent was granted, having no power to deliver it 
without their assents. Neither in truth is it in my 
custody." "Humbly bold in behalf of himself 
and the rest of those intrusted in the Pattent,"* he 
continued strenuously to maintain that " it could 
not be a grievance to the Publique, seeing at first it 
was undertaken for the advancement of religion, 
the enlargement of the bounds of a nation, the 
increase of trade, and the imployment of many 
thousands of all sorts of people."! A second and 
a third time he appeared before a committee of the 
house, and strove to convince them that all his ad- 
ventures were " for the advancenient of religion in 
those desert-parts, and that he had been drawne, 
out of zeal for his countryes happinesse to 
engage his estate so deeply as he had done."l 
This confused and sinister harangue availed noth- 
ing. When Parliament presented the "pub- 
lique grievances of the kingdome," the patent of 
New England was the first. § , They had heard 
Gorges and his " Learned Coimcell severall dayes, 
but they could not defend the same," and it was 
resigned to the king. Gorges did not fail to ascribe 
it to the influence of evil counsellors around the 
throne. "Notwithstanding," says he, "amongst 
those great swarmes, there went many that wanted 
not love and affection to the Honor of the King, 
and happinesse of their native country, however 
they were mixed with those that had the state of 

* Gorges, p. 21. | Gorges, p. 21. | Gorges, p. 28. ^ Gorges, p. 29. 



NEW HAMrSHIRE. 33 

established Church Government in such scorne chap. 
and contemptj as finding themselves in a country _J-^ 
of Liberty, where tongues might speake without 
controule, many, fuller of malice than reason, 
spared not to speake the worst that evill affections 
could invent."* 

Previous to the surrender, he and Mason had 
taken care to secure to themselves some portion of 
the expiring interest. That of Mason compre- 
hended both his former patents ; and in September 
following, Gorges sold to him a tract of land on 
the northeast side of the Pascataqua. It extended 
three miles in breadth,! following the course of the 
river, from its mouth to its farthest head, and in- * 
eluded a saw-mill at the falls of Newichwannock. 

In the midst of his fond anticipations of better 
fortune. Captain Mason was removed by death. 1635. 
This happened near the close of the year. He 
had accomplished none of the great purposes for 
which he came to this wilderness world. He em- 
barked with vast expectations of boundless wealth 
and grandeur. He proceeded " the best time of 
his age, loaden with troubles and vexations from all 
parts." Golden visions hovered round him to the 
last, in spite of the light of experience. He had 
no religious views in the purchase and settlement 
of New Hampshire. His whole energies were 
absorbed in the discovery of wealth, and the 
aggrandizement of himself and his family. His 
darlinjr scheme was the introduction of the feudal 
system into New Hampshire ; by which his family 
were to be the lords, and the people tenants of the 
soil. For this he labored; for this he sacrificed 

* Gorges, p. 43. t F. Belknap, pp. 14, 15. 

5 



3-i HISTORY OF 

his all ; still dreaming of the profits of discovery, 
antl the glory of founding a state. But though a 
dreamer, he was at the same time a man of action. 
" This Captain John Mason was himself a man of 
action,"* is the testimony of Gorges. Nothing 
daunted him. Nothing deterred him. Though 
adversity might cloud his prospects, it never de- 
pressed his spirits. The frustration of his efforts 
and the frequent wreck of his hopes only seemed 
to display the indestructible vigor of his mind. 
Amidst disappointment and discouragement he 
continued to attempt the foundation of a feudal 
empire, until death interrupted his toils and left 
him only a reputation for attempting impossible 
things. 

In their American possessions, both Mason and 
Gorges readily embarked their whole property, 
expecting the investment to return to them suddenly 
with great gain. But their estates melted aw^ay, 
and they received no profits. Yet their efforts, 
though fruitless to themselves, were not wholly 
lost. Their daring energy excited other minds; 
and, like the first voyagers over an unknown sea, 
they discovered and pointed out the quicksands to 
others, who profited by their disastrous experience. 
Thus they left the spur of their example to those 
who should set on foot new enterprises, or improve 
those which they had so boldly begun. "I began," 
says Gorges, "when there was no hopes for the 
present bat of losse ; in that I w\is yet to find a 
place, and being found, it was itselfe in a manner 
dreadfull to the behoulders ; for it seemed but as 
a desart Wildernesse replete onely with a kind of 

* Gorges, p. 38. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 35 

savage People and overgrowne trees. So as I chap. 
found it no meane matter to procure any to go — ^^ 
thither, much lesse to reside there ; and those I 
sent knew not how to subsist but on the provisions 
I furnished them withall."* Such was then a true 
picture of this now flourishing state, and such were 
the endeavors of the first settlers. In all the 
movements of Gorges there was a lack of system. 
"I was forced," says he, "to hire men to stay 
there the winter quarter at extream rates."! 
There was no place prepared to receive the emi- 
grants who consented to be the companions of his 
fortune. His enthusiasm allured them to his stand- 
ard ; his eloquence persuaded them to embark. 
When they became discouraged, he inspired them 
with confidence. When their provisions were ex- 
hausted, he supplied them. Meanwhile he con- 
tinued his exploring expeditions in the country, 
feeding his mind with visions of future splendor and 
power. But it was impossible to bear up against 
the obstacles of savage nature. It was impracti- 
cable to reap prosperity in a plan which neglected 
all the solid sources of growth. 

Gorges and Mason established no government. 
They employed persons to trade and fish for them, 
yet erected no tribunal to which they were ame- 
nable for fraud or breach of trust. They might 
commit the most flagrant crimes, and yet escape 
punishment. They might squander their goods, 
and yet avoid any civil liability. It was not, 
however, from undue confidence in man, or any 
mistaken views of the goodness of human nature, 
that they were led to dispense with the forms of 

* Gorges, p. 49. f Gorges, D. N. E., p. 12. 



36 HISTORYOF 

CHAP, government and law. It was the philosophy of 
__!^ Gorges, that " profit and content are (for the most 
part) the motives that all men labor, however oth- 
erwise adjoyned with faire colours and goodly 
! shadows."* lie often wondered and complained 

when their plans failed. But how could it be 
otherwise with those who neglected agriculture, 
which is like rearing the superstructure, having 
omitted the foundation? How could it be other- 
wise with those who, instead of grain, planted the 
vine and sought a purple vintage, as if the cold 
shore they dwelt on had been the brightest island 
of a tropic sea? Their scheme throughout, in all 
its details, was stamped with impracticability. 
They sketched out a fanciful system of lordships, 
and dwelt upon the plan of granting the lands sub- 
ject to quit rents and feudal tenures. The money 
necessary for this splendid government was to be 
dug from the earth ; the fashions and decorations 
were to be imported from the old world. They 
were to have stars and titles of nobility. But in 
all this they were doomed to disappointment. No 
lordships were established ; no order of nobility 
arose. There were neither titles to be enjoyed, 
nor wine-presses to be trodden. The same cold 
wilderness still stretched before their eyes. The 
rivers, broad and deep, rolled on, reflecting only 
the wild woods that had intermingled their branches 
and cast the shadows of ages over the waters. The 
same soil, rugged, but strong and productive, yet 
waited for the hand of industry, and refused to yield 
anything but to patient toil. It could not give 
them what it did not possess. It furnished wood 

* Gorges, D. N. E., p. 11. 



N E W H A ]\I P S H I R E . 37 

and iron in abundance. But silver nor gold would chap. 
it reveal. Had it possessed these, New Hampshire .^.^^ 
might have been what Mexico is, and England 
would have shared the calamities of Spain. 

Well was it for posterity that the unnatural 
eyes of Adventure, alone, could discern mineral 
wealth in the hills of New Hampshire. Fortu- 
nate was it that the soil was, for the most part, 
reserved for men who should settle upon it with 
no chimerical and vain hopes of treasure ; but men 
viewing human life and society in a true light — 
not building the castles of avarice ; but living by 
their industry — expecting only the rain and dew 
upon the seed they had sown — hoping for health 
and competence — and laying the only sure founda- 
tion for a great and flourishing country in intelli- 
gence and public virtue — good schools, good morals, 
government, and sober industry. These are the 
strength of a state. 



CHAPTER II. 

Dover. — The Antinomians — Exeter — Form of government a democracy — 
Antinomian controversy in Massachusetts — Hampton — Government 
formed at Portsmouth— At Dover — Constitution — Causes which led to the 
settlement of Exeter— The Puritans — Contest between them and the 
Antinomians, Henry Vane, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright— They 
are banished from Massachusetts— They come to Exeter — Their doctrines 
— Calvin — Calvinism — Union with Massachusetts — Wheelwright — His 
interview with Oliver Cromwell — The confederation — Passaconaway dis- 
armed — The White Mountains explored — Neal searches their summits 
for gold — description of them — Superstitious reverence of the Indians for 
their invisible inhabitants. 

The death of Captain Mason left the lower 
plantation on the Pascataqua under deep embar- 
rassments. He had been the moving spring in all 
its affairs, and his services were lost in the time of 
sorest need. But while the upper settlement lay 
under discouragement, the lower one also was 
struggling with difficulties. It was finally resolved 
that Captain Wiggin, tlie superintendent, should 
make a voyage to England to obtain more ample 
means for its advancement. He procured a num- 
ber of families from the west of England, some of 
them men of property, and " of some account for 
1633. religion," to come over and increase the colony. 
Trade was their object, and they resolved to build 
a town. Accordingly, they divided the land on 
Dover neck into small lots ; and on the most invit- 
mg part of that beautiful eminence which hes be- 
tween the two branches of the river, they erected 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 39 

a church. Danger compelled them to surround it chap. 
with an intrenchment, and flankarts. High above .^^J^ 
the surrounding shores, commanding an extensive 
and delightful prospect, stood this first edifice, 
consecrated to the public worship of God. A 
church ! Seldom has the New England village 
been found without one. Its spire, pointing to 
heaven, is the ensign of those who put not their 
trust in outward show, but in the inward purity. 
But the pious Leveridge, whom Wiggin brought 
over to minister to the people, was soon obliged to 
leave them for want of support ; and he retired to 
the Plymouth colony. After this, wandering ad- 
venturers,* and artful impostors, (as they were 1634. 
supposed to be,) came and preached to the people. 
George Burdet stole the hearts of the majority, so 
that they elected him governor, to the defeat of 1636. 
his rival, Wiggin. He represented his opponents 
as hypocritical, and that, under pretence of greater 
purity and discipline in matters of religion, they 1637. 
were aiming at nidependent sovereignty. 

At this time the far-famed Antinomian contro- 1638. 
versy, at Boston, had occasioned a violent strife and 
schism. It terminated in banishing from that colony 
the principal persons who bore that name of re- 
proach. Conspicuous among the exiles were the 
learned and truly pious Wheelwright, and his 
famous sister, Anne Hutchinson. They had before 
purchased some land of the Indians at Squamscot 
Falls, and now came, with the few friends who 
followed them into banishment, and began a plan- 
tation. They called it Exeter. Desirous to give 163S. 
efiiciency to those doctrines which they sacredly 

* F. Belknap, p. 18. 



40 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, cherished, and for which they had been driven from 

_,.J^ Boston, they formed themselves into a church. 
They also combined into a separate body pohtic, 
and chose rulers and assistants. Each ruler had 
two assistants. 

1638. These were sworn into office, and the people 
were as solemnly sworn to obey them. Their 
rulers, with the assistants, were elected annually. 
The laws were made in a popular assembly, and 
formally assented to by the people. Though they 
styled the king " the Lord's anointed," and 
punished treason against the king or the country, 
rebellion and sedition, yet in all their proceedings 
they presented a specimen of a pure democracy. 
They founded government on the true basis, 
viz., the consent of the governed. They recog- 
nised the right of every man to have a voice in the 
selection of his rulers ; thus making the people the 
source of power — the fountain from which it flows. 
This government conferred upon man a perfect 
equahty of rights. It made the people subject to 
no. laws but those of their own enacting, and it left 
in their own hands the absolute right of repeal ; 
thus giving them the power to correct public evils 
so soon as they should manifest themselves. This 
little association of exiles I consider to be the first 
institution of government in New Hampshire.* 
The colony of Mason cannot be regarded as such. 
It contemplated nothing but amassing wealth. It 
was formed wholly for purposes of trade and 
emolument. It imagined a system which was 
wholly impracticable, and was never, in fact, at- 

1638, tempted. The settlement at Exeter, therefore, was 

* Trumbull's Hist, of Connecticut^ vol. I., p. 6. 



NEW HAMFSHIKE. 41 

the foundation of the state. That government has chap. 

continued with trifling alteration for more than two .- 

hundred years. Two hundred years ! How wide 
a space in the world's history ! In that period 
what revolutions have convulsed the earth ! In 
that period Napoleon has run his career, changed 
the face of Europe, and died in exile. England 
has deposed sovereigns, reared a Commonwealth, 
and changed, again and again, the entire structure 
of her monarchy. France has overturned thrones, 
and all Europe has been shaken by the earthquakes 
and thunders of revolution. South America has 
been made to reek with blood unprofitably shed. 
The farthest east and the west, even to savage 
wilds, have been desolated by war. But with 
little interruption the northern states of America 
have shown to the world a proud example of 
liberty, stability, and progress. 

About this time the plantation of Hampton was i63S. 
formed at a place which the Indians called Winni- 
cumet. The salt meadows had attracted the knap, p. 
notice of Massachusetts, and the general court of 
that colony had empowered Richard Dummer and 
John Spencer to build a house there. This 
settlement opened the way and invited some per- 
sons from Norfolk, in England. They shortly 
afterwards came over, and the Hampton settle- 1638. 
mcnt, with this accession, numbered fifty-six. It 
was considered at this time as belon«jinff to the 
colony of Massachusetts. 

After the death of Capt. Mason, his widow, i639. 
weary of the great expenses and inadequate re- 
turns of the Portsmouth plantation, informed her 1639. 
servants that they must provide for themselves. 
6 




1640. 



4)2 . HISTOKYOF 

Some removed with their goods and cattle ; others 
remained, keeping possession of the buildings and 
improvements, which they henceforth claimed as 
their own. But the houses at Newichwannock 
were consumed by fire, and nothing was left of 
Mason's estate but a doubtful interest in the soil. 
Thus, the people were left without a government. 
After the example of Exeter, they formed them- 
selves into a body politic* Those of Dover did 
Oct. 22. the same.f By a written instrument, signed by 
forty-one persons, they agreed to submit to the 
laws of England and such others as should be 
enacted by a majority of their number, until the 
royal pleasure should be known. Here was a 
constitution, not dissimilar to that which is now 
kept sacred by a mighty nation, grown up around 
that first experiment upon constitutional govern- 
ment. 

Thus, I have briefly traced the history of these 
first four republics of the wilderness. They rose 
humbly from the forest. They stood as four cities 
of refuge, thrown open to those whom the sword of 
persecution might drive to them from beyond the 
Atlantic, or from the borders of the neighboring 
colonies. But it is here to be remarked that they 
were in fact J governments of the churches. The 
Bible was their law book ; and when the magistrate 
enquired his duty, he asked only what is the will 
of God. The plantation at Exeter formed the first 
congregational church, that at Hampton the 
second, that at Dover the third. Their diflicul- 

* The time when is uncertain. f F. Belknap. 

^ With the exception perhaps of Portsmouth, where a small Episcopal 
society had been formed, but no Congregational society existed there for 
many years. 



N E W H A M P S H I K E . ^i3 

ties, embarrassments and bickenn«fs, arose from chap. 

... • II 
vexed questions of religious faith and practice. , _. 

The backshding of some church member was 
always an event of importance. The imprudence 
of some minister was sufficient to agitate all the 
colonies. These three plantations were in all their 
circumstances much alike. Their governments 
were essentially the same. Yet the settlement at 
Exeter must be regarded as the most important, 
*both in its origin and in its influence upon the 
character of the state. It was made up of the 
persecuted Antinomians. But the history of the 
Antinomians is so intimately connected with that 
of the puritans, that it is impossible to present the 
one properly, without at least a preliminary view 
of the other. Without such a view, the character 
and motives of the first settlers of Exeter would 
be but little understood. The term Antinomian 
was a name of reproach. It signifies, an opposer 
of law. The Exeter settlers were deemed oppo- 
sers of law ; and I now propose to glance at the 
history of the puritans, in order to show who were 
these Antinomians — why they were thus stigma- 
tized, and how it came to pass that they were driven 
out from Massachusetts, and came, as exiles, to 
take shelter in the woods of New Hampshire. 

Next after the merchant adventurers at Ports- 
mouth, came the band of the persecuted to Exeter. 
Massachusetts was peopled by a feeble company 
of puritans, who fled from religious persecution in 
England. Massachusetts was destined in hev turn 
to draw the sword of persecution, and to people 
other colonies with the exiles whom she drove from 
her borders. Iler intolerance founded Rhode 



44 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Island, and gave immortality to the name of Roger 

. J_ Williams. 

The puritans distrusted the power of truth to 
work out her own triumphs. This, however, was 
the error of the age in which they lived ; and on 
that account they demand from posterity, when 
passing judgment upon them, a magnanimous for- 
bearance. History would do them injustice, did it 
fail to suggest the universal prevalence of this 
error, as an apology for the violence which the 
cause of religious liberty received at their hands. 
The puritans never professed to be advocates for 
freedom of conscience. From their writings they 
carefully excluded the idea of religious liberty. 
They demanded of the Church of England the right 
to enjoy their faith unmolested ; not because they 
approved of toleration, but because they believed 
they had found the true faith, and that all opposition 
to it was rebellion against God. They expressly 
denied and repudiated the doctrine of toleration, as 
a heresy, whenever it was imputed to them in Eng- 
land ; and when they came to America, they came, 
not to establish religious liberty, but to enjoy, 
unmolested, the peculiarities of their own faith. 
They lied to the New World to escape from inquisi- 
tion — not to establish a system from which inquisi- 
tion should be excluded. They regarded their dis- 
tant retreat rather as a home and household of their 
own, than as the world's asylum, and they claimed 
a right to dictate the terms on which their guests 
should enter. American eloquence and poetry have 
frequently eulogized them for opening a refuge for 
the world's outcasts. This is far from being true. 
They had no such intention. They always claimed 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 45 

the right to thrust out those v. honi they should find chap. 

to be enemies to their safety and harmony. Such . J_ 

was the ilhberal spirit by which they were actuated, 
in common with tlie age in which they lived, that 
they ever regarded the advocate of new doctrines 
as an intruder, coming to sow tares in the field. 
They experienced the alarm which the careful 
shepherd feels at seeing a wolf enter his fold. 

The fame of Massachusetts had gone abroad to 
the most distant lands, and the year 1635 witness- iq^s. 
ed an accession of three thousand emigrants to 
the puritan colony.* Among these came Henry 
Vane, the younger ; a youthful statesman of aspir- 
ing mind, but of spotless integrity. His admirable 
genius, his energetic will, his noble devotion to the 
cause of civil and religious liberty, rank his name 
high amongst those of whom history may be proud. 
The author of "Paradise Lost" has composed his 
eulogy in the most splendid forms of the English 
language. His elevated rank, his distinguished 
ability, his piety, and love of freedom, commended 
him to the freemen of Massachusetts, and he was 
elected governor, notwithstanding his extreme 1636. 
youth and want of experience. Under his admin- 
istration, the effect of religious divisions began to 
be felt, and the formation of two distinct religious 
parties may be perceived. The first party consist- 
ed chiefly of the original settlers. They had 
founded the commonwealth, and were intent upon 
building it up. They were satisfied with the es- 
tablished order of things. It was the work of 
their hands. They were afraid of innovations, and 



» Bancroft, I., p. 383. 



46 HISTORYOF 

dreaded the effects of unlimited freedom of discus- 
sion. 

The other party consisted of persons lately ar- 
rived in the colony. They had come, not so much 
to build up a commonwealth as to establish, enjoy 
and perpetuate entire freedom of religious opinion. 
They had fled from the oppressive laws of Europe, 
and they determined to resist every form of despot- 
ism over the mind in America. It was their pride 
to follow out the principles of the reformation of 
Martin Luther, w^ith logical precision, to all their 
consequences.* The founders of this party were, 
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her brother, John 
Wheelwright; the former, a woman whose eloquence 
and admirable understanding were universally ac- 
knowledged and admired. Mr. Wheelwright, her 
brother, was a clergyman of elegant accomplish- 
ments and devoted piety, and, at that time, the 
minister of Braintree, which then formed a part of 
Boston. When Mrs. Hutchinson and her brother 
examined the institutions of Massachusetts, they 
found this new building of the reformation defec- 
tive, and proceeded in very bold language to point 
out the "flaws." They denounced the clergy as 
"ushers of persecution," and " popish factors" — 
the magistrates as "priest-ridden," and as not hav- 
ing imbibed the true doctrines of Christian reform. f 
They were encouraged by Henry Vane. The men 
of learning and members of the general court 
adopted the opinions of Mrs. Hutchinson, and a 
majority of the people sustained her in her pre- 
sumptuous rebellion against the clergy. Thus, at 
the outset, the party of Mrs. Hutchinson was in 

* Bancroft, I., p. 387. f Bancroft, I., 387. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 47 

the ascendency. Bat the subject became of the chap. 
highest political importance, and both parties pre- _J^ 
pared for an obstinate contest. Nearly all the 
clergy clustered together under Winthrop, and 
selected^ him as their candidate for governor ; 
while the new sectarians rallied under Vane. The 
whole colony was convulsed with the contest. 
Throughout Boston and its environs the tide of 
enthusiasm rose to an unprecedented pitch. The 
nicest shades of faith were of sufficient magnitude 
to throw the whole community into transports or 
broils. The most abstruse distinctions were de- 
bated with a'confidence and a swell of importance, 
such as the great fathers of theology never felt or 
comprehended. 

The general court consumed its sessions in 
debating what quantity and quality of piety should 
be preached on the coming Sabbath, and on Mon- 
day they enquired what minister had preached 
sedition the Sunday before. The speeches of the 
members were made up of apt texts of Scripture, 
endowed with a new and powerful meaning, de- 
signed for the context into which they found them- 
selves thus unceremoniously introduced.* The 
shops were supplied with elaborate essays, and the 
streets thronged with crowds eagerly discussing 
the subtlest points of controversy. Many persons 
declared themselves in personal companionship with 
the Holy Spirit. Some became insane, and others, 
plunged in learned doctrinal disquisitions, forgot the 
duties of active benevolence. The Wheelwright 
men were unforbearing and impatient of contra- 
diction. Mrs. Hutchinson divided the Christian 

* Grahame. 



4S HISTORY OF 

CHAP, souls into sound and unsound, and stigmatized the 

n .... 

___ last as a set of " unchristian vipers." The Win- 

throp men, in return, denounced the followers of 
Wheelwright as fanatics, extreme Calvinists and 
Antinomiaiis. In Mrs. Hutchinson they found an 
unconquerable antagonist — slow to hear, quick to 
speak. She assembled conferences, presided in 
person, and kept the lire of controversy in a con- 
stant blaze. She attacked her opponents with 
acrimony, and those who refused to receive her 
doctrines found the consequence to be a full mea- 
sure of abuse. " There is no peace in the neigh- 
borhood," said the clergy. " Home and the fire- 
side have no quiet." Though they admitted her 
to be an adept in debate, they professed to find her 
deficient in all the gentle graces that adorn the 
female character. 

Meanwhile election day arrived, and on that 
occasion the pious Wilson deemed it his duty to 
climb into a tree to harangue the people at the 
polls. The result of the election proved the 
Winthrop party, the fathers and founders of the 
colony, to be in a majority. They elected their 
governor and their candidates for the magistracies. 
When they found themselves in possession of 
power, they procured a movement to be made in 
the general court. Thus did the theological jar 
gain admission into the legislature of the colony. 
1637. An act was passed censuring Wheelwright and his 
friends for sedition. Vane, who pleaded eloquently 
for the liberties of Catholics and Dissenters in 
Parliament, and afterwards laid down his life in the 
cause of religious liberty, remonstrated, but inef- 
fectually, against this act of censure. He, likewise, 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 49 

opposed the alien law, which the puritan fathers chap. 

passed, for the purpose of excluding "such infatu- L^ 

ated men as Wheelwright" from the colony. 
Wheelwright and his friends, however, bade de- 
fiance to the decrees of the court. They avowed 
the dictates of conscience to be of higher authority 
than acts of legislative assemblies. They declared 
themselves to be, as usual, in direct communication 
with the Holy Spirit, and guided by immediate 
revelations from heaven. Winthrop and the pious 
fathers now excited the people with apprehensions 
of an immediate insurrection of lawless fanatics. 
This spread alarm through the colony. They 
declared themselves to be on the eve of a revo- 
lution, and that it was a crisis calling for a convo- 
cation of the grand synod of the clergy of New 
England. It was accordingly convened, but the 
mountain of investigation gave birth to nothing. 
The synod found, that with all their theological 
acumen, they could discover no criminal difference 
between the dreaded Antinomian heresy main- 
tained by Wheelwright and his sister, and the 
more orthodox tenets of Winthrop and Colton. 
They therefore adjourned, and left to the civil 
magistrates the task of punishing the leaders of 
Antinomianism. The magistrates, glad of an op- 
portunity to exercise their newly acquired power, 
passed sentence of banisliment upon Wheelwright, 
Anne Hutchinson and Aspinwall. The exiles, 
wearied with opposition, took up their march for 
the wilderness, seeking a refuge from intolerance, 
— banished from among banished men — exiles from 
a place of exile. Dissenters could not tolerate a 
dissenter. 

7 



50 HISTOEY OF 

CHAP. Thus ended the Aiitiiiomian controversy in Mas- 
^ sachusetts. It now remains to point out the dis- 
tinctive doctrines of each party. First, then, it is 
to be observed that the Wheelwright men were 
rigid Calvinists. They did not come to Massa- 
chusetts with the first band of emigrants. When 
they arrived, they found that the colonists had 
relaxed somewhat from the precise tenets of Cal- 
vin. They were placing what was considered an 
undue reliance upon good works, and were swerv- 
ing from the true faith on the important subjects 
of election and foreordination. They proclaimed 
the precise dogmas of Geneva, wdth which they 
had come freshly laden, and "reproached the 
colonists with being practical men under a covenant 
of works." The Winthrop men wished to pre- 
serve Calvinism, but softened and mellowed down 
with an infusion of what they deemed practical 
religion. The Wheelwright men relied for sal- 
vation on absolute predestination, which could not 
be affected by the merits or demerits of men's 
actions. The Winthrop men relied for salvation 
on faith and good works. Wheelwright believed 
that the divine choice had rested, from all eternity, 
upon a certain number, to whom grace was given 
by an absolute, unchanging decree, Winthrop 
believed that the salvation of men w^as not so abso- 
lutely decreed as to be impregnable against the 
assaults of temptation and sin. The divine will is 
unchangeable, said Wheelwright. The eternal 
counsels of God are sure. Is the will of Heaven 
to be defeated by the sins of man ? Of what use, 
then, enquired Winthrop, is repentance ? To 
what purpose is the practice of virtue and pietv. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 51 

since the divine favor is neither to be propitiated chap. 
nor forfeited ? Wheelwright was himself a most _.-J^ 
powerful pulpit advocate of Calvinism. Both he 
and his sister, in their conduct and doctrines, were 
prone to extremes. Yet in the history of the 
Calvinists there is much to palliate error and much 
to mitigate the harshness of censure. Liberty 
never had braver defenders than were these extreme 
Calvinists. Almost always in the old world, and 
generally in the new, the warfare for Calvinism has 
been a w^arfare against oppression. The soldier 
of the cross, in the Calvinistic sense of the term, 
has ever been the soldier of liberty ; and of all the 
multitudes who have worshipped at the shrine of 
that goddess, few have been more devout. They 
have investigated the bounds of authority. They 
have set limits to the power of kings. They 
never were the slaves of priestcraft. In their 
system of church government they acknowledge 
no sovereign pontiff. It is a pure democracy. 
The will of the majority is law. There is 
nothing to disturb equality of rights. Whatever 
power the clergy may have obtained, is no fault 
of the system itself; for no power of necessity 
pertains to them or to any officer of the church. 
The humblest member has no superior but the 
King of kings. Nor is the pastor superior to any 
brother, except it be in faith, humility, and hope. 
He has no greater power over the brother than the 
brother has over him. They are monitors of each 
other — counsellors of each other. They use no 
liturgy — they bow to no confessor. The pastor is 
but the expounder of the divine will. The body 
of the church are the judges of it, and God is the 



52 " HISTORY OF 

CHAP, judge of all. This system leads, of necessity 
_-.-i^ and naturally, to popular liberty. The idea that 
wealth is to be deified, and government founded 
upon property, never sprung from the system of 
John Calvin. It is a plant of after growth amongst 
us. The democratic theory springs naturally from 
the Calvinistic system of church government. The 
theory has been caught up by thousands who have 
rejected the creed. The Calvinists were ad- 
herents of a system that sprung from the people. 
The great reformer was himself a plebeian. His 
infancy was cradled in a lowly abode. His youth 
and manhood were spent in wrestling with the 
errors of a world. He raised and elevated an en- 
slaved peasantry. He exposed the crimes of a 
corrupt priesthood. He was tlie advocate of com- 
mon schools, the glory of New England. On the 
whole, humanity is largely indebted to the man 
whose cruel burning of Servetus has left an indel- 
ible stain on his memory. 

Thus the motives of the first settlers of Exeter 
were in harmony with democratic principles of gov- 
ernment. They were exiles "for conscience sake." 
They came to the wilderness for freedom. They 
were tried in the school of misfortune ; they were 
disciplined by struggling with persecution. Such 
was the Exeter settlement. Christianity presided 
at its birth and " rocked its cradle."* It grew up. 
It put forth its hands with increasing strength, 
and displayed in its form the beauty of youth. It 
ripened to maturity. It became the State of New 
Hampshire — a member of that Union which binds 
together a mighty confederated Republic. 

* Bancroft. 



N E W H A I\I P S H I R E . 53 

Four distinct governments had been formed on chap. 
the several branches of the Pascataqua. These — 1^ 
combinations were but voluntary agreements. 
They might be invaded by capricious leaders, or 
dashed asunder by the first wave of popular dis- 
content. The people were too much divided to 
form any general plan of government, and the dis- 
tracted state of the mother country cut off all hope 
of the royal attention. In this state of things, the 
minds of the more considerate men were turned to 
a union with Massachusetts. The affair was agi- 
tated for more than a year, and on the fourteenth ^pt.'^ 
of April, it was concluded by an instrument of 
union, subscribed in the presence of the general 
court. Thus did Massachusetts spread the broad 
wing of her jurisdiction over the Pascataqua set- 
tlements. Her laws now took immediate effect in 
New Hampshire, and the histories of the two plan- 
tations, for a period of thirty-eight years, become to 
blended together. The population of New Hamp- ' 

shire, at this time, did not exceed one thousand, 
which was about one twentieth of the whole popu- 
lation of the American colonies. When the act 
of union took place, one extraordinary concession 
was made to New Hampshire. By a law of Mas- 
sachusetts, a test had been established, which pro- 
vided that none but church members should vote 
in town affairs, or sit as members of the general 
court. This gospel requisite was dispensed with 1641. 
in favor of the New Hampshire members, and her 
freemen were permitted to vote in town affairs, and 
her deputies to sit in the general court, without 
regard to religious qualifications ; an amazing 
stride in liberality — a stretch of toleration, which 



54 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, some declared to amount to absolute atheism, and 
n 

^^J^ others looked upon as the entering wedge of impi- 
ety, destined to sunder the goodly bonds of society. 
It sent a shudder through the whole body of the 
church. 

Under the new order of things, Wheelwright 
was no longer safe. His sentence of banishment 
was still in force, and when the laws of Massachu- 
setts took effect in New Hampshire, he was obliged 
to make another remove, to escape the sword of 
persecution. Attended by a few faithful followers 
he withdrew to Wells, in Maine, and there gathered 
1 small church. He was afterwards permitted to 
'eturn, and exercise his ministry at Hampton, 
^leanwhile, a revolution in England had raised 
Jliver Cromwell to the head of the English com- 
monwealth. Some time afterwards, Wheelwright 
went to England, and was conducted to the pres- 
ence of Cromwell. The Lord Protector, with 
characteristic constancy to his early friends, recog- 
nised him as an old college acquaintance. They 
had been at the University together. " I remem- 
ber the time," said Cromwell, turning to the gen- 
tlemen then about him, " when I have been more 
afraid of meeting Wheehvright at foot-ball than of 
meeting any army since in the field." Cromwell 
received him kindly, took him into favor, and ap- 
pointed him to a post of distinction. After the 

1660. restoration, he returned to Salisbury, in New 
Hampshire, where he died in 1680, at the advanced 
age of more than eighty years. It will be remem- 
bered that the immediate cause of Wheelwright's 
banishment, was a sermon which he preached at 
Boston. That sermon was considered, by the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. • 55 

magistrates, as " tending to sedition." " But it chap. 
was not such," says Savage, " as can justify the 
court in their sentence for sedition and contempt, 
nor prevent the present age from regarding that 
proceeding as an example and a warning of the 
usual tyranny of ecclesiastical factions." 

Scarcely had the act of union taken place, when 1642. 
the settlers were alarmed by apprehensions of an 
attack from the Indians. Rumors were circulated 
of a plot formed for the utter extermination of the 
English. A party was immediately despatched to 
seize and disarm Passaconaway. The old chief, 1642. 
as a pledge of amity, readily delivered up his guns. 
It was soon discovered that the reports of a plot 
had but a slight foundation, and the affair ended 
with an apology to Passaconaway, for the acts of 
violence which had been committed. But ground- 
less as this alarm proved, it drew the attention of 
the colonists to the advantages of a confederation. 
They were surrounded by common difficulties 
and menaced by common dangers. On the one 
hand, the Dutch coveted their possessions. On 
the other the French threatened to encroach. All 
around them lay savage tribes, against whom they 
could rely for security only upon their arms, their 
union and their valor. Influenced by these con- 
siderations, the inhabitants of four colonics, viz., 
Connecticut, New Haven, New Plymouth, and 
Massachusetts, which embraced New Hampshire, 
formed a confederacy. It lasted for half a century 
— a type of that more glorious Union under whose 
broad wings their posterity now repose. 

By the articles of confederation, as they were 
called, these colonies entered into a perpetual 



56 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, league of friendship and amity. It was declared 
J^ to have a twofold object. It was to propagate 
the gospel and for mutual safety and welfare. Each 
plantation was to retain its own jurisdiction and 
government. No other colony could be received 
as a confederate, nor could any two of the confed- 
erates be united into one, without the consent of 
the rest. They decreed the estabHshment of a 
legislative assembly to manage their affairs, and 
this consisted of two commissioners, or members 
chosen from each colony. All affairs of war or 
peace, leagues, aids, charges, number of men for 
war, division of spoils, and whatsoever is gotten 
by conquest, receiving of more confederates for 
plantations, and all things of like nature, which 
are the proper concomitants and consequences of 
such a confederation, for amity, offence and defence, 
were weighed and determined by these commis- 
sioners, and the determination of any six of them 
was to be binding upon all. The expenses of all 
just wars, were to be borne by each colony, in 
proportion to its number of male inhabitants. But 
the commissioners were directed to take into con- 
sideration the causes of such war ; and if it should 
appear that the fault was in the colony invaded, 
such colony was not only to make satisfaction to the 
invaders, but to bear all expenses of the war. The 
commissioners were also authorized to frame and 
establish agreements and orders, in general cases 
of a civil nature, wherein all the plantations were 
interested, for preserving peace among themselves 
and preventing, as much as may be, all occasions 
of war, or difference with others. It was also 
wisely provided in the articles, that runaway ser- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 57 

vants and fu2jitives from justice should be returned chap. 

. . II. 

to the colonics to which thc}^ belonged, or from — 1^ 

which they had fled. If any of the confederates 
should violate any of the articles, or in any way 
injure any of the other colonies, such breach of 
agreement was to be considered and ordered by 
the commissioners of the other colonies. Such 
were the powers of the general government of the 
colonies ; and it was expressly provided that this 
general power should not intermeddle with the gov- 
ernment of any of the jurisdictions ; which by the 
third article was preserved entirely to themselves.* 

While the leading men of the colonies w ere busy 1642. 
with the confederation, Capt. Neal explored the 
White Mountains.! He was by no means devoidj 
of the passion for discovery ; and a feature so 
prominent in the scenery of New Hampshire could 
not fail to attract his attention. The Indians had 
given the name of Agiocochook to the whole group 
of northern mountains. These awful summits they 
regarded with superstitious veneration. The red 
man believed that a powerful genius presided on 
their overhanging cliffs and by their waterfalls. 
His imagination peopled them with invisible beings. 
He saw the Great Spirit in the clouds gathered 
around their tops. He heard his voice speaking in 
the revels of the storm, and calling aloud in the 
thunders that leaped from cliff to cliff and rumbled 
in the hollows of the mountains. Wherever sur- 
passing excellence appears in the works of nature, 
the Indian discerns the presence of a divinity. He 
believes that some unknown agency has made the 

* Pitkin's Hist. U. S., pp. 50, 51. Holmes' American Annals, vol. I., pp. 32(3-7. 
t Whiton. p. 11. \ Winthrop, Hist. New England, H., C7, 68. 

8 



58 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, firmament, and set a light in the eastern sky. A 
._-,I^ god resides in the stars, the lakes, and the recesses 
of the grottos. He sees him in the clouds and 
hears him in the winds — frowning in the wintry 
blast — breathing in the zephyrs of spring — smil- 
ing in the first blush of morning, and the last hue 
of twilight that lingers above the pines in the 
western sky. In his undefined ideas of Nature, the 
sentiment of fear is always mingled. He cannot 
solve the origin of her changes or analyze her laws. 
Every uncommon appearance excites his amaze- 
ment and strikes him with terror. With every 
hidden agency, with every mysterious influence of 
Nature, he blends the idea of a divinity. Super- 
stition springs up in his mind from all her inexpli- 
cable relations and remarkable features. Influ- 
enced by fear, the Indians never ascended the 
White Mountains. They supposed the invisible 
inhabitants would resent any intrusion into their 
sacred precincts. But while they presented an 
impassable barrier to the Indian, they offered a 
charm to the mind of the white man, and their 
supposed mineral wealth allured him to their 
heights. Such an impression had they made 
upon the imagination of Neal, that he set out on 
foot, attended by two companions, to reach them 
through an unexplored forest. He described them, 
in the most exaggerated style, to be a ridge 
£' extending an hundred leagues, on which snow 
lieth all the year, and inaccessible, except by the 
gullies which the dissolved snow hath made. On 
one of these mountains the travellers reported to 
have found a plain of a day's journey over ; whereon 
nothing grows but moss ; and at the further end 



NEW HA Mr SHI RE. 59 

of this plain, a rude heap of mos«^ stones, piled up chaf. 
on one another, a mile high ; on which one might — i^ 
ascend from stone to stone, like a pair of winding 
stairs, to the top, where was another level of ahout 
an acre, with a pond of clear water. This summit 
was said to he far ahove the clouds ; and from 
hence they heheld a vapor, like a vast pillar, drawn 
up by the sunbeams out of a great lake mto the 
air, whence it was formed into a cloud. The 
country beyond these mountains, northward, was 
said to be " daunting terrible," full of rocky hills, 
as thick as mole hills in a meadow, and clothed 
with infinite thick woods. They had great expec- 
tation of finding precious stones ; and something Cei- 
resembling crystals being picked up, was sufficient "'^' * 
to give them the name of " Crystal Hills." From 
hence they continued their route in search of a 
lake and " faire islands." But their provisions 
were now well nigh spent, and the forests of La- 
conia yielded no supply So they were obliged to 
set their faces homeward, when "the discovery 
wanted but one day's journey of being finished." 
Late in the year, depressed with that disappoint- 
ment which ever treads upon the heels of extrava- 
gant expectation, they returned from their melan- 
choly journey across the wilderness. They seemed 
to expect a treasury underneath every foot of the 
rude soil. They imagined every rock of yellowish 
hue to be impregnated with gold. They slept on 1642. 
the mountains, dreaming of the rich ore lurking in 
their rocky foundations, and overlaying the roofs 
and floors of their deep subterranean halls. With 
fancy's eye they saw through the fissures of the 
rocks, and beheld yawning caverns starred with 



60 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, gems and rouoh with gold. Two centuries have 

^-^ rolled over the bleak summits of these stupendous 

mountains without realizing one dream of early 
adventure. They still stand, the throne of the 
thunder and the storm; still rear their snow- 
crowned heads into the sky, unchanged and un- 
changeable — images of eternal duration. 

" Oh ! that some bard would rise — true heir of glory, 
AVith the full power of heavenly poesy, 
To gather up each old romantic story 
That lingers round these scenes in memory. 
And consecrate to immortality — 
Some western Scott, within whose bosom thrills 
That fire which burneth to eternity, 
To pour his spirit o'er these mighty hills, 
And make them classic ground, thrice hallowed by his spells ! "* 

1650. After the confederation of the colonies, few events 
claim a notice in history, till the middle of the 
seventeenth century. The settlements had con- 
tinued to increase in population ; and Major 
Richard Waldron, having risen, by his bravery 
and force of character, to be the most conspicuous 
man of the province, was occasionally elected 
speaker of the Massachusetts assembly. Ports- 
mouth had lost the rustic name of Strawberry 

16-52. Bank, and assumed its present appellation, Mas- 
sachusetts had begun that admirable system of 

1647. common schools, which has ever been the pride of 
New England ; and Mayhew Elliot and others had 
begun to journey on foot through the pathless wil- 
derness — fording streams — paddling sometimes in 
canoes on the rivers, lodging in the " smoky week- 
wams," and suffering every privation, to preach 
Christianity to the Indians. It was not the least 

* Hibbard's description of the Franconia Mormtain Notch, Democratic 
Review of April; 1830, No. 16. 



NEV/ HAMPSHIRE. 61 

of Elliot's labors that he translated the whole Bible chap. 
into the language of the Pawtiickets. An im- — '^ 
portant change had occurred in the form of legisla- 1644. 
tive proceedings. Hitherto tlie magistrates and 
representatives, who together constituted the gen- 
eral court, had acted as one body. From this time 
their deliberations assumed parliamentary forms. 
The magistrates met in a separate apartment, 
constituting an Upper House, and bills were sent 
from one house to the other for concurrence in a 
parliamentary way. 

The heirs of Mason, in England, now learned 1658. 
that Massachusetts had extended her jurisdiction 
over New Hampshire. They could offer no effec- 
tual resistance. While England was distracted 
with civil wars, there was no time for legal inves- 
tigation ; and when Robert Tufton, the heir to 
whom his estate descended, came over, on the 
death of Mason's executrix, he found the heirs of 
Mason already dispossessed of the lands at Ne- 
wichwannock. To recover possession, he instituted 
some suits in the county court. This induced 
Massachusetts to order a survey, which extended 
to Aquedochtan, the outlet of lake Winnipiseogee. 
The court decided that a portion of land propor- 
tionate to Mason's disbursements, with the privi- 
lege of the river, should be laid out to his heirs. 
Tufton gave up the remainder for lost, and returned 
to England, where now centered all hope of re- 
covering any further portion of his ancestral do- 
mains. The family of Mason had been too strongly 
attached to the royal cause to expect any relief 
from the commonwealth and the Protectorate of 
Cromwell. 



Ill 



CHAPTER III. 

Witchcraft at Portsmouth — In England, and France — In German}', and 
Scotland — Trial of a witch — The Salem witchcraft — Conjectures as to 
the phenomena of witchcraft — Persecution of the Quakers — Execution 
of Leddra, Robinson, and Stevenson — Reflections. 

CHAP. I HAVE now readied an epoch in the history of 
New Hampshire, from which I would gladly pass 
to some other point, if oblivion could cover the 
space that would lie between. While Old Eng- 
land was shaken by the earthquakes of two revo- 
lutions, and a civil war raged, in which an ancient 
throne passed away and returned again, the people 
of Portsmouth, in common with the whole of New 
England, were agitated by convulsions scarcely 
less terrific. Old women, in the shape of cats, 
rode the air on broomsticks, and unwonted spectres 
haunted many a disordered imagination. Some 
were publicly accused, and many more were pri- 
vately stamped and known as witches. While 
accusation and suspicion were confined to the 
abodes of humble life, the bewildered reason of 
man submitted in silence, and the mania seemed to 
admit of no cure. But when some of the principal 
persons were accused, they assumed the offensive, 
and brought suits of slander against their accusers. 
This put a stop to prosecutions ; but a lingering 
belief in witchcraft still remained with the super- 
stitious. The trial of " Good wife Walford," is a 



March. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 63 

curious relic of the times.* She was broui^ht be- chap. 

lu 
fore tlie Court of Assistants at Portsmouth, on _,J_ 

complaint of Susannah Trimmings, and the testi- 
mony of a number of witnesses was gravely laid 
before the court. The complainant, the person 
bewitched, was the first witness, and testified as 
follows : 

" As I was going home on Sunday night I 
heard a rustling in the woods, which I supposed to 
be occasioned by swine ; and presently there ap- 
peared a woman, whom I apprehended to be old 
Goodwife Walford. She asked me to lend her a 
pound of cotton. I told her I had but two pounds 
in the house, and I would not spare any to my 
mother. She said I had better have done it, for I 
was going a great journey but should never come 
there. She then left me, and I was struck as with 
a clap of fire on the back, and she vanished toward 
the water side, in my apprehension in the shape of 
a cat. She had on her head a white linen hood, 
tied under her chin, and her waistcoat and petti- 
coat were red, with an old gown apron and a black 
hat upon her head." 

Oliver Trimmings, her husband, thus testified : 
" My wife came home in a sad condition. She 
passed by me with her child in her arms, laid the 
child on the bed, sat down on the chest, and leaned 
upon her elbow. Three times I asked her how 
she did. She could not speak. I took her in my 
arms, and held her up, and repeated the question. 
She forced breath, and something stopped in her 
throat as if it would have stopped her breath. I 
unlaced her clothes, and soon she spake and said, 

* Adams's Annals of Portsmouth. N. H. Hist. Coll., I., p. 255. 



64 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Lord, have mercy upon me ; this wicked woman 
^J^ will kill me. I asked her what woman. She said 
Goodwife Walford. I tried to persuade her it was 
only her weakness. She told me no, and related 
as above, that her back was a flame of lire, her 
lov/er parts were, as it were numb and without 
feeling. I pinched her and she felt not. She 
continued that night and the day and night follow- 
ing very ill, and is still bad of her limbs, and com- 
plains still daily of it." 

Nicholas Rowe testified, that " Jane Walford, 
shortly after she was accused, came to the depo- 
nent in bed, in the evening, and put her hand upon 
his breast, so that he could not speak, and was in 
great pain till the next day. By the light of the 
fire in the next room, it appeared to be Goody 
Walford, but she did not speak. She repeated 
her visit about a week after, and did as before, but 
said nothing." 

Eliza Barton deposed that she "saw Susannah 
Trimmings, at the time she vras ill, and her face 
was colored and spotted with several colors. She 
told the deponent the story, who replied that it was 
nothing but fantasy ; her eyes looked as if they had 
been scalded." 

John Puddington deposed that "three years 
since, Goodwife Walford came to his mother's. 
She said that her own husband called her an old 
witch ; and when she came to her cattle, her own 
husband would bid her begone ; for she did over- 
look the cattle, which is as much as to say in our 
country, bewitching." 

Other cases occurred at Portsmouth, of a simi- 
lar character. But in no instance was the accused 



N E W 11 A Rl r S II I R E . 65 

condemned to suffer death. Yet the scenes which chap. 
were enacted in New Hampshire would be worthy .^J^ 
of notice, as instances of remarkable delusion, if 
they had not been far exceeded by the multitude 
of witch trials at Salem, Braintree, Andover and 
Topsfieldj in Massachusetts ; which trials were 
also far surpassed, in enormity and absurdity, by 
cases which occurred in almost every country in 
Europe. In France and Germany, in England 
and Scotland, witchcraft was recognised as a crime 
in courts of justice, and by sovereigns and legis- 
lators. The most learned judges of the day, 
infected by the popular belief, gravely listened to 
the testimony of witch-finders, passed judgment, in 
the forms of \u.w, upon the condemned, and inflicted 
punishment in every form of death and torture. 
Thus Europe, the land of the arts and sciences, 
the world of civilization and learning, was echoing 
with authority on the subject of witchcraft. Ac- 
counts were arriving constantly of its horrors in 
the old vrorld and the trials and executions of 
witches. The same excitement began to prevail 
in America ; until, at length, witchcraft broke out 
at Salem in its most malignant form. Twenty 1^^^' 
persons were condemned and perished by the hands 
of the executioner. They protested their inno- 
cence to the last, and died for a crime which 
modern intelligence declares never existed but in 
the imagination of man. The public excitement 
rose to such a pitch that all legal principles seem 
to have been as effectually destroyed as were the 
Jewish laws at the trial of Christ.* 

* See the "Trial of Jesus," translated from the French of M. Dupin, by a 
member of the American Bar. 

9 



66 HISTORY OF 



III 



CHAP. The JLidges partook of the frenzy which bore the 
multitude away. Thus it happened that this most 
undefined of all crimes, witchcraft, Vv as established 
by the most absurd modes of proof that ever 
insulted a judicial tribunal. No punishment was 
decreed against false witnesses.* During all this 
delusion, no such thing as perjury was suspected. 
The magistrates seem never to have thought of im- 
posture, fraud, or mistake. Cross-examination of 
witnesses, one of the great shields of innocence, 
was prohibited. The judges, whose duty it was 
to protect the innocent, obeyed the popular 
clamor, and sought to elevate themselves in public 
estimation by entrapping the prisoner into confes- 
sions of guilt. The most diabolical witch evidence 
and hobgoblin cant were greedily listened to from 
the bench, and the testimony of impartial, substan- 
tial witnesses was suspected and frowned upon. 
Revolting and ingenious modes of torture were 
often resorted to, and insults were offered to the 
prisoner in open court, by the bystanders, and by 
the judges and ofhcers of the court. 

While the laws were forgotten, or trampled 
upon, the ties of nature seemed to be loosened and 
dissolved. It was not uncommon for young chil- 
dren to be witnesses against their parents, and 
parents against their children. Contrary to the 
laws of nature and the laws of civil society, hus- 
bands were permitted to accuse their wives, and 
wives to bear witness against their husbands. 
What can be more revolting than a superstition 
thus deaf to the voice of humanity; arming itself 
with supernatural terrors ; striding with icy foot 

* Upham'.s Lectures on Witchcraft. 



NEW IIA3IPSHIRE. 67 

over the family hearth : siinderin£[ the sweet kindred chap. 

. . .Ill 

ties, and making husband and wife, parent and child, ._--,.^ 

the blind instruments of each other's doom! 

So bitter was the public hatred against witches, 
and with such a terrible zeal did the multitude 
pursue all suspected persons, that many confessed 
themselves guilty, that they might either be ac- 
quitted, or suffer death and find in the grave a 
refuge from their tormentors. But this was not 
to be their lot. All who confessed were acquitted. 
This is directly at war with the principles of the 
common law, under which the witch magistrates 
professed to act. By the common law, when a 
crime has been committed, free, voluntary confes- 
sion is deemed the best evidence of guilt. Yet all 
those who had been proved guilty by what is 
usually deemed the best evidence, were acquitted; 
while those were executed, to procure whose con- 
viction all justice had been violated and every 
principle of law broken down. Fifty-five persons 
confessed that they were witches, and had formed 
a compact with the devil. By maintaining their 
innocence, they had before them the certain pros- 
pect of an ignominious death. They knew that 
the delusion had full control of their accusers, and 
of the magistrates and judges.* Self-preservation, 
the first law of nature written on man's heart, was 
the law upon which they acted. Some instances 
occurred of persons really believing themselves 
guilty, and confessing under that belief Nor 
need this excite wonder. Confused by the terrors 

* This court consisted of seven judges. In it there was no jury, and law- 
yers were forbidden to practise there. The abuses of this court furnish a 
terrible example of the danger of abolishing the trial by jury, and denying to 
accused persons the assistance of counsel. 



68 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of an arrest, cut off from their friends, overwhelmed 
_,^J_ by evidence wholly new, and which they did not 
suppose to exist, heart-broken and bewildered in 
mind, they ceased to distinguish between things 
suggested by their own knowledge and memory, and 
things poured into their ears by their accusers, and 
echoed and re-echoed by the popular cry. To 
increase their embarrassment, there w^as a class of 
professed witch-finders, who had various devices 
for finding out witches. These creatures were per- 
mitted to give their spectral evidence in court, and 
make oath to what they had discovered by the use 
of charms. To this detestable jugglery the mag- 
istrates lent a ready ear. 

The effect of accusation upon the accused some- 
times resembled the effect of epidemic disease ; 
for they immediately fancied themselves possessed 
of, and exhibited, all the demonish witch symptoms 
which the ignorance or malice of their accusers 
attributed to them. When superstition has thus 
become contagious, it reigns in its most appalling 
aspect. It prostrates its wretched victims like the 
blasting touch of the plague. It moves like a 
spreading disease, and strikes both the heart and 
the intellect, like the touch of the torpedo. It in- 
vades the bench, and manhood seems to be lost in 
the magistrate. Unable to summon energy of 
mind to resist or mitigate this merciless scourge, he 
seems prepared, under its baneful influence, to 
inflict upon his fellow-men the greatest of evils. 

The mode of examination and trial pursued by 
the Salem magistrates, sufficiently explains the 
control it had gained over them. It was this. A 
warrant being issued out to apprehend the person 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. ^ 69 

complained of by " the afflicted children," the said chap. 
person is brought before the justices. '' The af- .__-l^ 
flicted children" are present. The justices ask 
the accused, why she afflicts these poor children. 
To which she answers, " I do not afflict them." 
Unavailing is this artless plea of " not guilty," 
tendered to the magistrate in the simplest language 
that insulted human nature could utter — / do not 
ajjlict them. The justices next order the accused 
to look upon "the said children;" which she 
accordingly does. The afflicted are then cast into 
fits. The accused is next commanded to touch 
the afflicted ; whereupon the afflicted ordinarily 
come out of the fits, and then proceed to affirm that 
the accused has bewitched them. The accused is 
straitway committed to prison, on suspicion of 
witchcraft. In the solitude of her dungeon she 
awaits her trial, wholly unconscious of the crime 
which must seal her doom, and unable to fathom 
the mystery which brings suspicion and punishment 
upon an innocent head. 

This process was called " the evidence of ocular 
fascination;" and in order that it might have its 
perfect work, the accused and the accusers were 
confronted face to face, in the presence of the 
court. When the supposed witch was ordered to 
look upon the afflicted persons, instantly, upon 
coming within the glance of her eye, they would 
scream and fall down in convulsions. It was 
thought by the magistrates of Salem, that an in- 
visible and impalpable fluid darted from the eye of 
the witch, and penetrated the brain of the bewitch- 
ed.* By bringing the witch so near that she could 

* Uphara's Lectures on Witchcraft. 



70 HISTORY OF 

CHAr touch the afflicted persons with her hand, it was 
III 
_.-;_ supposed that the mahgnant fluid was attractedback 

into her hand, and that thus the sufferers recovered 
their senses. It was a favorite theory of the Salem 
magistrates that a witch, or a person in confeder- 
acy with the devil, could not weep. The " callous 
spot," also, was an infallible proof of guilt. They 
believed that Satan affixed his mark to the bodies 
of those in alliance with him, and that the spot 
where this mark was made became callous and 
dead. Thus, upon the testimony of witch-finders, 
many aged women were condemned, because some 
spot could be found upon their old and palsied 
frames, insensible to a throb of pain ; or, because 
they were so overwhelmed, when brought before 
their tormentors, by the horrors of their situation 
and approaching fate, that the fountain of grief was 
dry. 

The public mind had become so inflamed that it 
was unsafe to express a doubt of the reality of 
witchcraft. Accused persons were accordingly 
without defence. But the extremity of an evil 
sometimes suggests its cure. It is a fact that the 
first check given to the Salem witchcraft arose from 
an accusation brought against the wife* of one 
of " the principal men of the town." This has 
generally been considered accidental. But it may 
be that there were, amongst the poor and unpro- 
tected, some bright minds, whose keen perception 
discovered that the only way to check this fatal 
delusion was to bring it home to the firesides of 
the clergy, the magistrates, and the rich men of the 
colony. It may be that these poor persons pur- 

* Mrs. Hale. — See Upham's eloquent Lectures on Witchcraft. 



NEW IIAiMPSHIRE. 71 

posely accused some of " the principal citizens," chap. 
in order to awake others from their trance, in time ._^J^ 
to avert the impending calamity from their own 
hvunbler dwcHings. 

It would perhaps be difficult to offer a solution 
of all the phenomena of witchcraft, upon scientific 
principles. Most of them, however, point to 
diseases of the nervous system ; and particularly 
to an affection of the optic and auditory nerves. 
To the afflicted, the air, the darkness, and all space 
were full of strange sights and sounds. Drums 
beat in the air at dead of night, and guns, swords, 
and armed men appeared in the darkness. The 
minds of all were oppressed with the most distress- 
ing apprehensions of coming evil. Every uncom- 
mon sight was construed into a preternatural sig- 
nal of approaching dissolution. Death bells tolled 
through their dreams, and a departed spirit seemed 
to shriek on every rushing blast. Their visions 
were disturbed by the forms of their deceased 
friends, walking before them in their grave-clothes. 
Every village teemed with legends of haunted 
houses, where ghosts looked out from the windows. 
The simple guide-post, and the tavern signs were 
transformed into ghosts, stretching out their hands 
to the travellers, like supernatural assassins. The 
withered tree, red with autumnal foliage, of\en 
took the form of a murderer, giving in the con- 
fession of guilt by holding out his gory hands. 
The strange twitchings, and spasmodic action, with 
which whole families were seized, the fits and con- 
vulsions, the settled melancholy, and occasional 
insanity of others, are all symptoms of nervous 
affections ; and when we consider that the witch- 



72 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, craft excitement spread gradually over Europe, 
..^..J^ and reached America, (while other portions of the 
world were untouched,) reigning for a brief season, 
and then disappearing, it is not an improbable 
conjecture that the whole mystery of witchcraft 
may be solved, by ascribing it to an epidemic 
disease of the nerves ; which, like the cholera and 
the plague, overspread vast portions of the earth, 
and passed away ; leaving mankind in doubt, as to 
the cause of its origin and the mode of its fearful 
progress. 
l6oS. While the magistrates of Portsmouth were busy 
with the witches, religious intolerance broke out 
fiercely against the Quakers. During the whole 
period of this persecution. New Hampshire was 
but an appendage to Massachusetts, and tlie laws 
by which Quakers were whipped and led through 
the streets of Dover, tied to carts, were laws of 
Massachusetts. The stain of that vindictive 
persecution attaches itself to New Hampshire, 
because she had a small representation in the 
assembly of Massaclmsetts when those laws were 
enacted. 

The civil authorities at Boston justified their 
proceedings, with the specious pretence of securing 
the peace and order of society. They declared 
the "vagabond Quakers" to be "capital bfas- 
phemers," seducers from the glorious Trinity, open 
enemies to government, and subverters both of 
church and state.* 

Accordingly, a la\y was published, prohibiting 
the Quakers from coming to the colony, on pain 
of the house of correction. " Notwithstanding 

* Sewall's Hist. Quakers, p. 462. 



N E W H A 31 P S H I R E . 73 

which, by a back door they found entrance."* chap. 
The penalty was then increased to cutting off the — L- 
cars of those who offended the second time. This 
barbarous punishment was inflicted in several in- 
stances ; for which the public safety was the ready 
apology. But even this proved ineffectual ; and the 
offenders were next banished, upon pain of death, 
for returning. But this availed nothing. The 
Quakers returned and sealed with their blood the 
testimony of their faith. Of all the wrongs which 
man has inflicted upon his fellow-man, is there one 
which has not been perpetrated in the name of reli- 
gion and for the public good? On the twenty- 
seventh of October, Robinson and Stevenson were Oct. 2-. 
led to execution, attended by two hundred armed 
men, besides many horsemen. When they had 
come near the gallows, a coarse and vulgar priest 
cried out tauntingly to Robinson, " Shall such 
jacks as you come in before authority with their 
hats on?"t To which the martyrs made a mild 
reply. The prisoners then tenderly embraced 
each other, and ascended the ladder. When Rob- 
inson signified to the spectators that he "suffered 
not as an evil-doer," the voice of the priest was 
again heard, — " hold thy tongue ; be silent ; thou 
art going to die with a lie in thy mouth. "| The 
sufferers were soon launched off; their last words 
were silenced by the beating of drums. When ,gg, 
William Leddra was brought to the gallows, he ^^^<'^ 
began a speech, which "took so much with the 
people that it" " wrought a tenderness in many." 

* See "The Apologj' of the Bloody Persecutors." Sewall, I., p. 460. 
t This was one of the crimes of the Quakers. Sewall, I., p. 596. 
X Idem, p. 597. 

10 



74. HISTORY OF 

ciiAP. Allen, an officious priest was near, whose business 

TTT 

it V. as to make the martyr odious ; and instantly 

interrupted him. " People ! " cried Allen, "I would 
not have you think it strange to see a man so will- 
ino- to die." The hangman was commanded to 
make haste with Leddra, " and so he was turned 
off, and finished his days." But his friends, with 
pious solicitude, gathered around the foot of the 
gallows, caught the body in their arms, as it fell, 
bathed it with tears, and having waited until the 
hangman had stripped it of the clothes, laid it 
decently in a coffin. Thus intolerance had another 
victim. 

When the news of this bloody work was carried 

to England, and reached the king, an order was 

1661. forthwith issued to Governor Endicot, to suspend 

^^^" all executions, and send the (Quakers to England, 

for trial* — a privilege which they had claimed, 

when brought before the courts of Massachusetts. 

The next year, three duaker women were pub- 

De~ licly whipped in New Hampshire. In the depth 

of winter, the constables w ere ordered to strip them 

and tie them to a cart ; then to drive the cart and 

whip these three tender women through eleven 

towns, with ten stripes apiece in each town. The 

route lay through Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, 

Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Lynn, 

Boston, Roxbury, and Dedham ; a distance of 

near eighty miles. They were whipped at Dover 

and Hampton, and then carried, "through dirt 

and snow half the leg deep," in a very cold day, 

to Salisbury ; and there whipped again. They 

would probably have perished long before reaching 

* ScM-all, I., p. 475. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 75 

the end of the route, but at Salisbury they were chap. 
happily released. Walter Barefoot persuaded the ___ 
constable to make him his deputy, and having 
received the warrant, set them at liberty, and they 
returned to Dover.* 

The Quakers were accused of courting perse- 
cution. It was said that " they rushed upon the 
point of the sword." It would be difficult per- 
haps to reconcile all their conduct with that prin- 
ciple of common law and common justice which 
requires every man so to use his own rights as not 
to interfere with the rights of others. Actuated by 
a mistaken sense of duty, they sometimes violated 
this salutary maxim. But so long as the errors 
of an honest faith inflict no great evil upon society, 
enlightened reason will regard them rather as the 
harmless eccentricities of misguided zeal, than as 
offences deserving the extreme vengeance of the 
law. 

* Sewall, I., p. 563. 



IV. 
166a 



CHAPTER IV. 

AVak with the Indians — Passaconaway — His cliaracler — His dying speech — 
The Penacooks refuse an alliance with king Philip — Indian depredations 
— Fall of Philip — Waldron seizes the refugees by stratagem — The 3Io- 
hawks instigated to attack the eastern Indians — Union with Slassachii- 
setts dissolved — New Hampshire made a royal province — President 
Cults. 

CHAR At the restoration of Charles II., Tuft on, who 
now took the surname of Mason, determined to 
make one more attempt to recover the vast pos- 
sessions of his ancestor. The family of Mason 
had heen too strongly attached to the royal cause 
to look for favor to the Protector. But when 
Charles II. ascended the throne, it was hoped that 
a ray of royal favor might heam from the mind of 
the hesottcd king. The monarcli received his pe- 
tition favorahly, and referred it to the attorney 
general. Sir Geoffrey Palmer. That officer re- 
ported that Mason had a good title to the province 
of New Hampshire. But tlic English government, 
being at this time involved in difliculties at home, 
nothing of importance was done relative to this 
title ; and while it lay in supense an Indian war 

167.5. hurst upon tiio colony. Suddenly, the towns and 
settlements were filled with alarm. Business was 
suspended, and the inhabitants, deserting their 
dwellings, were seen flocking together into the for- 
tified houses, or hastily tlu'owing up entrench- 
ments. Behind these they awaited, in terror, the 
approach of the savages. 



HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 77 

At this time the far-famed sachem Passacon- 
avvay dweh. at Penacook. He was now old ; and 
his reputation for wisdom and cunning had hecome 167 o. 
celebrated amongst all 'the eastern Indians. His 
authority extended over the Pcnacooks, and over 
all the tribes on the Pascataqua and its branches, 
and around the environs of lake Winnipiseogec. 
But he was famed not less for his duplicity and 
cunning, than for his moderation and love of peace. 
He had, also, the reputation of a sorcerer. The 
Indians believed that he held secret intercourse 
with the mysteries of nature ; that it was in his 
powder to make water burn and trees dance. They 
supposed he had power to change himself into 
flame ; that he could darken the sun and moon ; that 
in winter he could raise a green leaf from the ashes 
of a dry one, and a living serpent from the skin of 
one that was dead.* With the Indians, such at- 
tributes give their supposed possessor a boundless 
influence. Passaconaway liad alv.ays been an ad- 
vocate for peace. From the first landing of the 
English, this savage seemed to have a presentiment 
that they were destined to exterminate his race. 

A few years before, the Indians held a great 1(360. 
dance and feast. On such occasions the elderly 
men, in songs or speeches, recite their histories, 
and deliver their sentiments and advice to the 
younger.f At tliis solemnity, Passaconavvay was 
present, and made his farewell speech to his chil- 
dren. The warriors and chiefs were gathered from 
all the tribes, and sat reverently to hear the last 
words of their great father. Passaconaway was 
gifted with all the natural eloquence of the Indian. 

* Hutchinson, vol. I., p. 471. F. Belknap, p. 6G. f F. Belknap, 06. 



78 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. He rose deeply aflected, and spoke as a dying man 
^J3^1^ to the dying. He described the happy hunting- 
grounds, once theirs, with the stores of fish and ani- 
mals which the Great Spirit had made for his red 
children ; and placed in mournful contrast their past 
independence and power, with their present w^eak- 
ness and decay. He explained the superior powers 
of the w hite man, and told the Indians plainly that 
the day would come when the English would be 
tenants of all the pleasant lands of their fathers. 
He prophesied that a war would shortly break out 
all over the country ; and that it was only by 
standing aloof from it that they could hope to pre- 
serve a small seat, so that they might not be 
beggars in the pleasant places of their birth. 
"Hearken," said he, '^ to the last words of your 
father and friend. The ichite men arc sons of 
the morning. The Great Spirit is their father. 
His sun shines bright about them. JVever make 
tear u'ith them. Sure as you light the fires, the 
breath of heaven ivill turn the flames ujwn you 
and destroy you. Listen to my advice. It is the 
last I shall be allotvcd to give you. Remember 
if and live."* 

When this recital was ended, Passaconaway sat 
down, and a cloud of sorrow passed over the brow 
of the venerable sava^-e. The Indians remained 
for some time musing in silence upon his words. 
His speech had deeply agitated them, during the 
whole recital. His aged frame, loaded with years, 
his deeply plaintive voice, his sad and altered tones, 
when bespoke of the hunting-grounds once theirs, 

* Williamson's Hist, of Maine, vol. 1., p. 461. Hubbard's Indian Wars, 
pp. 67-8, and 329. Hist. IN'ew England, p. 60. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 79 

stronoly airitatcd the whole assembly. When he chap. 

J IV. 

drew the picture of their melancholy decay, and , J^ 

compared them to the snows of winter dissolving, 
the Indians bowed their heads and gave way to 
loud lamentation. 

His counsels made a deep impression upon all ; 
but upon none more than Wanalonset, his son. 
With the exception of the Pequot war, in Connec- 
ticut, the settlers of New Hampshire had lived in 
peace with the Indians for nearly fifty years. Yet 
the Indians were not too blind to see, without 
concern, the growing power of the English. Their 
favorite hunting-grounds were growing narrower, 
and their game fled at the repeated sound of the 
woodsman's axe. The wilderness around them 
was falling. What would be the end of this in- 
trusion ? Their minds began to be haunted with 
melancholy forebodings of eventual dispossession. 
Philip, the far-famed warrior of Mount Hope, per- 
ceived the discontent of his brethren, and resolved 
to take immediate advantage of it to foment a war. 
He had long sought a pretext for hostilities. 
Philip was an artful, ambitious, warlike chief; 
and if patriotism be the love of one's own country 
and people, he was a patriot. He foresaw that his 
people must eventually be destroyed, unless they 
could equal the whites in civilization, or vanquish 
them in battle. The former was impossible ; and 
he resolved upon the latter. His old men approved 
it, and his zeal was seconded by the rash ardor of 
his young warriors. In pursuance of his design 
he went from tribe to tril)e, exhorting the Indians 
to a war of extermination. He sent out his run- 
ners in all directions, always selecting men of ad- 



80 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, dress, to urge on the bloody enterprise. A fortu- 
___ nate incident, happening at this time, brought into 
his alliance the Tarrateens and most of the eastern 
Indians. It was one of those accidents which was 
well fitted for his purpose. As the wife of Squando, 
whiton, sachem of the Pequawkets, was passing on Saco 
^Bei-' river, with her infant child in her frail birch bark 
p"?!'. canoe, she was met by some thoughtless sailors. 
They had heard that Indian children could swim 
as naturally as the young of brutes, and wantonly 
overset the canoe. The child sunk ; the mother 
F. Bel- instantly dived and recovered it ; but the child died 
"^'*^* soon after, and the Indians ascribed its death to 
this brutal treatment. Squando was a noted sa- 
chem, a leader in the superstitious devotions of the 
1675. Indians, and pretended to a familiar intercourse 
with the invisible work! . Such an indignity, offered 
to a man of such distinguished character, was 
sufficient to make the tribes of Maine and Massa- 
chusetts allies of PhiHp. 

His next care was to enlist the Mohawks. This 
he resolved to do by an artful and cruel stratagem. 
With his own hand he slew some Mohawks, and 
left them unburied in the woods. His intention 
was that their bretliren should discover their man- 
sled bodies, and ascribe the deed to the English. 
But this proved abortive. One of the number, left 
for dead, unexpectedly recovered and disclosed his 
cruel perfidy to the tribe. The Mohawks were 
ever afterwards his implacable enemies. He found 
no difficulty in bringing into his plans the Ossipees, 
(in Stratford County,) the Indians at the mouth of 
the Pascataqua, at Squamscot Falls, and at Ne- 
wichwannock. The Penacooks were the only 



NEW HA MPS HIKE. 81 

tribe that resisted his soHcitations. No arts of per- chap, 

. IV 

suasion could move them. In vain did he strive L_ 

to win over the young Wanalonset by artful ap- 1675. 
peals to his pride and his remembrance of wrongs. 
In vain, with well-timed eloquence, did he seek to 
arouse the ambition of the young chieftain for war 
and glory ; and in vain did he try to play upon the 
superstitious reverence of the Indian for the bones 
of his dead. The dying advice of Passaconaway, 
his father, had sunk deep into the heart of the 
youthful sachem, antl he drew off his men to a dis- 
tant part of their imnting-grounds, that they might 
escape the infectious influence of Philip. 

Foiled in his attempts to enlist the Penacooks, 
Philip now determined to rest his hopes of success 
on the support of the other tribes. He saw ranged 
under his banner the warriors of many powerful 
nations. He put himself at their head and gave june, 
the signal for hostilities. His first attack was upon ^^^^' 
Swansey, in Massachusetts ; where several of the 
inhabitants fell victims to the tomahawk. From this 
point the flames of war spread rapidly. The eastern 1675. 

and northern Indians, rushing from their coverts ww- 

I'll- ^''"' 2''- 

m small bands, fell upon the scattered mhabitants 

at unawares, and killed many. In September they Sept. 
extended their incursions into New Hampshire, and 
spread destruction through Somersworth and Dur- 
ham,* and along the road between Exeter and 
Hampton. They passed on, burning houses and 
slaying the inhabitants, to the borders of Maine, 
and came to attack a house in Berwick. In this 
house were huddled together fifteen women and 

*N. H. Hist. CoU., vol. V., pp. 129—153. 
II 



82 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, children, amongst whom was a girl of eighteen 
^.J^ years. Discovering the Indians approaching, she 
closed the door and stood firmly against it, while 
F.Bel- the savages chopped it to pieces with their hatchets, 
p. 7-2. and then, rushing in, knocked her down and left 
her for dead. Meanwhile the other inmates had 
all escaped to a safe distance, except two of the 
children, who, being unable to scale the fence, were 
overtaken and slain. The adventurous heroine 
recovered from her wounds, but neither history 
nor tradition has preserved her name. 
1675. On the sixteenth of October the enemy made an 
^^'■^^" attack upon Berwick. Lieut. Roger Plaisted im- 
mediately detached a party of seven from his garri- 
son to search for the Indians. They scoured the 
woods, finding no trace of them, until they suddenly 
fell into an ambush. Three were instantly killed, 
and the remainder retreated. Plaisted now^ des- 
patched an express to Major Waldron for assisl- 
F. Bel- ance; which he was not in a situation to afford, 
p^ys. Plaisted resolved to do his utmost with the means 
in his hands. The next day he ventured out with 
twenty men and a cart drawn by oxen to bring in 
the dead bodies of the slain. Unhappily, they fell 
into another ambush. The cattle, affrighted, ran 
back. At this juncture Plaisted's men deserted 
him. Being a brave man, and disdaining to yield 
or fly, he was killed on the spot, with his eldest 
son and one more, while another son was mortally 
wounded fighting at his side. The gallant behavior 
of Plaisted and his sons caused the enemy to re- 
treat to the woods. They next made an assault 
upon Frost's garrison. This little garrison consist- 
ed of Mr. Frost and three boys. But they kept 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. S3 

up a constant fire, and Frost gave orders to load, chap 

as if to bodies of men marching and counter- . J^ 

marching. The stratagem completely succeeded, ^^J^^- 
and the house was saved. Emboldened by suc- 
cess, the Indians soon appeared opposite to Ports- 
mouth, and threatened to attack the town ; but 
were easily dispersed by a few cannon shot. They 
showed themselves at Dover, Lamprey River and 
Exeter, killing and plundering ; and thus passed 
the autumn, till near the end of November, when Nov. 
the number of slain amounted to more than fifty. 
The inhabitants began to find the necessity of 
vigorous action, and resolved upon an expedition 
against the winter quarters of the Indians around 
Winnipiseogee and Ossipee lakes. But at this whi- 
crisis winter set in with uncommon severity, and p.^7. 
wrapped the earth in a deep snow. This circum- 
stance inclined the Indians to peace. Pinched by 
famine, they came to Major ¥/aldron with profes- 
sions of sorrow and promises of amity. A peace was 
easily concluded with the eastern Indians and with 
those of the north. The joyful return of peace 
brought with it a welcome deliverance to many 
captives. In the mean time, Philip, at the head of 
the southern tribes, was spreading death and deso- 
lation throughout Massachusetts. lie burnt, in 
rapid succession, the towns of Brookfield, Deer- 
field, Mendon, Groton, Rehoboth, Providence and 
Warwick. lie laid waste Lancaster, and car- 1675. 
ried Mrs. Rowlandson captive into the wilderness. 
At Northfield he defeated Capt. Beers and slew 
twenty of his men. At Muddy Brook, in Deerfield, 
he surprised Capt. Lothrop and his company, while 
gathering grapes, and with him slew more than 



84 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, seventy young men, the flower of Essex County. 

..,,..-L_ At Sudbury, Captains Wadsworth and Brockle- 
beauke sustained a disastrous defeat, and fell, with 
fifty of their men, after maintaining the action 
with great gallantry and killing one hundred and 
fifty of the enemy. ' 

These bloody reverses overspread the whole 
country with gloom. It was apparent that, unless 
a speedy check could be given to the career of 
Philip, the utter extermination of the English must 
follow. The colonists aroused themselves to a 
last effort at self-preservation, and the campaign of 

1676. 1676 opened with a plan at once bold, perilous, 
and successful. 

1675. Philip had retired, glutted with blood, to the 
heart of a great swamp in Rhode Island. Thither 
he was attended by his warriors, with a multitude 
of old men, women, and children. He had carried 
with him large quantities of provisions, and had 
built more than six hundred wigwams. These he 
placed so that the whole of them formed a camp, 
fortified in a manner far superior to the rude no- 
tions of his tribe. To render them bullet-proof, 
he caused baskets of corn to be piled one above 
the other around the inside of the wigwams. His 
supplies were abundant, and he thought himself 
secure. But the troops of Massachusetts, Ply- 
mouth, and Connecticut, hearing of his position, 
resolved to attack him in his winter quarters. They 
approached the place, forced an entrance, after a 
fierce conflict, and set the wigwams on fire. A 
thousand Indians perished by the sword and the 
flames. This disaster proved a death-blow to the 

1676. power of the southern Indians. The next spring 



1675. 

Dec. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 85 

they were able to renew the war but feebly. The 
English scoured the woods m all directions, killing 
large numbers ; and at length brought them to a 
general battle on the west bank of Connecticut 
river. Overtaken by surprise, a large number 
were killed. Others threw themselves into the 
river to escape their pursuers ; and some, rushing 
panic-struck to their canoes, were unable to seize 
the paddles, and, when they reached the current of 
the river, were borne down over the falls. The 
affairs of Philip had now become desperate. His 
warriors, accustomed to victory, could not bear 
defeat. His allies and dependents forsook him, and 
he was at last surprised, with a few followers, and 
slain by Captain Church. 

Thus perished this savage warrior, whose name 
had so long filled the colonies with terror. After 
his fall, his tribes were unable to renew the war, 
and New England happily found rest. But the 
joyful return of peace in southern New England, 
was quickly followed by the renewal of hostilities 
at the north. 

Numbers of the southern Indians, at the death 1676. 
of Philip, fled and took refuge with the Penacooks, 
the Ossipees and the Pcquawkets. It was chiefly 
by these refugees that the war was fomented. All 
the inhabitants west of Portland, abandoned their 
plantations and retired westward. But the settlers 
of New Hampshire were now prepared to prosecute 
the war vigorously. They had become accustomed 
to Indian warfare. Massachusetts, freed from the 
terror of Philip, could send powerful reinforce- 
ments ; and, accordingly, two companies marched p j.t. e. 
from Boston to Dover. Here they found a great 



86 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, number of Penacooks at Major Waldron's, who 

TV 

„^.J_ had come to confirm a peace. But there were 
amongst them many known to have been the con- 
federates of Phihp. They were disguised in their 
looks and behavior. But it was not easy for them 
to escape the discernment of those who had met 
them in combat. After much deUberation, and 
some misgivings as to the morahty of the proceed- 
ing, it was finally resolved to seize all the refugees. 
Waldron himself, was averse to the measure. But 
the Boston companies had brought with them 
orders to seize all the Indians who had been en- 
gaged in the war. Eager to avenge the slaughter 
of their friends, they were desirous to fall upon 
them at once. Waldron dissuaded them from this, 
and contrived the following stratagem. He invited 
the Indians to have a sham-fight and a training, 
after the fashion of the English. To this they 
readily assented, and it took place the next day. 
Waldron's men, with the Boston companies, formed 
one party, and the Indians the other. While en- 
gaged in this diversion, by a dexterous movement, 
the whole body of Indians were surrounded before 

F. Bel- they could form a suspicion of what was intended. 
ap,p. r^i^^y ^vere immediately seized and disarmed, with- 
out the loss of a man on either side. A separation 
was then made. Wanalonset and the Penacooks 
were peaceably dismissed. The "strange Indians" 
were sent prisoners to Boston. Seven of them 
were proved to have killed Englishmen, and were 
hanged. The rest were sent to Africa and sold 
into slavery. Africa was destined to return the 
boon with usury. This was an act of deliberate 
treachery, for which there is no sufficient justifica- 



NEW HAMT SHIRE. 87 

tioii. Had not the Indians come to treat for peace? chap. 
Were they not entertained for that purpose? To .^J^ 
attack them under such circumstances was a 
wanton breach of good faith, and a violation 
of the laws of nations. Such the Indians deemed 
it, and with their accustomed remembrance of 
injury, they treasured it up against the day of 
vengeance. 

Does the responsibility of this act rest wholly 
upon Major Waldron? His judgment was averse 
to the measure. Did he yield, without reluctance, 
to the rash counsels of the Boston troops? Did 
he fail, after every effort, to dissuade them from the 
attack, and then interfere and substitute a strata- 
gem only to save the lives of the Indians? If the 
latter was his position, the whole blame rests upon 
the companies from Boston. They could plead 
nothing in extenuation of their conduct, except *the 
general orders of their government. Did the gen- 
eral orders of their government excuse them? 
These were " to seize all who had been concerned 
with Philip in the war." But no orders of gov- 
ernment imply the necessity of breaking over that 
immemorial custom and universal law which gives 
full protection to all individuals of the enemy 
actually engaged in treating for peace. The laws 
of war forbid firing upon a flag of truce, and pro- 
tect every one who goes to an enemy's camp to ask 
for a suspension of arms. It is true that the 
cruelty and treachery of a barbarous foe make it 
impossible to conduct a war with him strictly 
according to the usages of civilization. As a 
measure of retaliation, therefore, it must be justified, 



88 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, if at all. Unhappily for the country, as the sequel 

,2^J^ will shew, it cost Waldron his life.* 

Having sent to the government at Boston a cargo 
of slaves, as well fitted for the market of Africa as 
her own sable sons were for iVmerica, the troops 

1676. took eight Indian pilots from Cocheco, and pro- 
ceeded eastward. But they found only deserted 
settlements. No enemy was to be seen, and the 
companies returned from their fruitless march, to 
Pascataqua. They next undertook a winter expe- 
dition to lake Ossipee ; for it was reported that the 
Indians had constructed a strong fort on the west- 

Nov. 1. ern shore. Four days they marched through the 
wilderness, and crossed several rivers. On arriving 
at the spot, they found the fort entirely deserted. 
Not an Indian had been seen in all the march. 
The weather, in the meantime, had become severe, 
and the snow was deep. Finding it impracticable 
to proceed farther, the main body halted and sent 
forward a select detachment. They proceeded 
eighteen miles, and saw nothing but frozen ponds 
and snowy mountains. After an absence of nine 
days, they returned to Newichwannock, and found 
that the story of Indians assembling at Ossipee 
had been invented by a Penobscot. A third incur- 

1677. sion into the Indian country was led by Major 
Waldron, the next year. But he returned after a 
few unimportant skirmishes. 

Having been long harrassed by the alarms of 
war, the people sought for some expedient by 
which they might effectually guard against them. 
They remembered the inveterate enmity of the 
Mohawks to the New England tribes, and that 

*N. H. Hist. Coll., n., p. 46. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 89 

the Penacooks still trembled at the mention of chap. 

their formidable enemies. They imagined that if !_ 

they could incite the Mohawks to make a hostile 1677. 
incursion eastward, it would terrify all the hostile 
Indians. Agents were about being despatched to 
further the project, when a doubt arose as to the 
morality of the proceeding, and it became a subject 
of debate. It was said that the Mohawks were 
" heathen." The colonists, however, had an easy 
way to settle the question. The Bible was strait- 
way produced, and therein it was found that Abra- 
ham had entered into a league with the Amorites 
to recover his kinsman Lot from a common enemy. 
This argument was conclusive ; the most scru- 
pulous were satisfied ; and the Mohawks were 
brought down to Amoskeag early in the spring. March. 
They appeared at the falls, to the son of Wanalon- 
set, and killed several friendly Indians in the neigh- 
borhood of Dover. But this incursion of the 
Mohawks failed of its object. It produced no 
other effect than to pour suspicion into the minds 
of the peaceful Penacooks, and irritate the more 
warlike tribes of the east. The next summer was 
passed in continual apprehension and alarm. The 
Indians were hovering about the precincts of the 
settlements, murdering and carrying into captivity. 167S. 
Early the next year they discovered an inclination 
for peace, and a treaty was negotiated at Casco.* 
Three years of ceaseless anxiety had passed over 
the colonists. The flower of the young men had 
fallen in battle. But all this was now happily 
terminated. The captives returned with joy, and 
gentle peace succeeded the storms of battle. 

* Now Portland, 

12 



90 HISTORY OF 

CHAr. The omens and prodigies of superstition attended 
_il_ this war. The human mind, ignorant at tliat time 
1678. of the most common phenomena of nature, stricken 
by continual fear, and brooding constantly over hor- 
rors, sunk to puerile weakness, and readily resolved 
every unusual appearance into prodigy and miracle. 
Many people imagined that they heard guns and 
drums in the air. Even an eclipse was viewed 
with serious fears, and long lines of clouds in the 
evening sky, having their edges illuminated by the 
setting sun, were converted, by a disordered fancy, 
into flaming swords and spears, gleaming athwart 
the heavens, presaging wrath and impending havoc. 
1675. In the midst of the difliculties and distresses of 
this war. Mason again petitioned the king for the 
restoration of his property. The king referred the 
petition to his attorney general, Sir William Jones, 
and his solicitor general. Sir Francis Winnington. 
These officers reported that Mason " had a good 
and legal title to said lands." The Massachusetts 
1G7G. colony were thereupon summoned to appear and 
^xT'^ answer the complaints which Mason and the heirs 
of Gorges had made of usurpation. Accordingly, 
WilHam Stoughton and Peter BuUerly, two agents, 
were despatched to make answer for the colony. 
They arrived, and appeared before the Lords Chief 
1677. Justices of the king's bench and Common Pleas. 
After hearing both parties, the judges decided that 
"Massachusetts has no right of jurisdiction over 
New Hampshire." They did not settle the ques- 
tion of the right of soil ; but decided that Mason 
had no right of government within the territory 
which he claimed. It was likewise determined 
that the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 91 

and Hampton, were out of the bounds of Massa- chap. 
chusetts. By this decision, it was evident that no .___ 
court in England had jurisdiction of the pro- 
l^ietary claims. In order to the establishment of 
Mason's title, it was necessary to erect a new 
jurisdiction, with new modes of trial and appeal. 
This decision paved the way to a separation from 
Massachusetts. The king himself was in favor of 
it. Influenced by his displeasure against that 
growing colony, and by his desire to favor the claim 
of Mason, he resolved on a separation of the two 
colonies. Accordingly, things having been pre- 1679. 
pared beforehand, a commission passed the great fs." 
seal for the government of New Hampshire ; re- 
straining the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and 
erecting New Hampshire into a distinct province. 
The government was to consist of a President and 
Council, to be appointed by the crown, and an 
assembly of Representatives to be chosen by the 
people. John Cutts, an eminent and popular 
merchant of Portsmouth, was president, and the 
counsellors were Richard 3Iartin, William Yaughan 
and Thomas Daniel, of Portsmouth ; John Gil- 
man, of Exeter ; Christopher Ilussey , of Hampton ; 
and Richard Waldron, of Dover. Thus was 
dissolved the union of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. It had subsisted for thirty-eight 
years. It was beneficial and satisfactory to both. 
The growth of both had been promoted. The 
government about to take its place, was instituted 
at the instance, and with the view to favor the 
claim, of Mason, the most repugnant to the people. 
The system prescribed in this commission was 
the most simple form of subordinate government in 



92 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP. America. The people were represented, in a body 
_J_ chosen by themselves, and had the right of in- 
structing their representatives. The king could 
disannul the acts of both bodies at his pleasure. 
Actuated by his aversion to Parliaments and repre- 
sentative bodies, king Charles, by a clause art- 
fully worded, retained the right to discontinue the 
representation of the people, whenever it should 
suit his pleasure to resist their will. Yet into this 
plan of colonial government there was infused 
much of the spirit of the British constitution, and 
there was much more protection given to the rights 
of the people than in England. There was no 
third branch between the king and the people. 
Thus the house of peers, the worst feature of the 
feudal system, composed of lords, enjoying a 
sovereignty over their own territory, and ruling 
powerful bands of vassals, was excluded from New 
England. The relation of lordship and vassalage 
was not to perpetuate the dependence of the many 
on the few. Though the king ruled, yet the yeo- 
manry, the natural defenders of their own rights 
and property, were the proprietors of the soil. 



CHAPTER V. 

Organization of the new government — Laws — Crimes — Courts — Militia — 
Discontent of the people — Death of Ciitts — Cranfield — His character — Ar- 
bitrary measitres — Gove"s rebellion — He is sent to the tower of London — 
Persecution of Bloody — Character of bloody — Riot at Exeter — Andros 
made governor general — Revolution in England — Revolution in the colo- 
nies — Andros deposed — Union with Blassachusetts — "War with the Indians 
— Death of Waldron — Indian cruelly — Sufferings of the captives. 

On the first day of January, a royal commissioti chap. 
was brought to Portsmouth. Bearing the sanction __^ 
of the great seal, it declared New Hampshire a J^^-^- 
royal province. Unwelcome tidings to the people ! 
Unwelcome was the messensrer who bore them.* 
Having long enjoyed the advantages of the union 
with Massachusetts, they yielded witli reluctance 
to the separation. They saw the evil genius of 
Mason in the change, and viewed it as the triumph 
of a vested right over rights acquired by purchase 
of the Indians, and defended at the price of blood. 
It was difHcult for them to see how a piece of 
parchment, taking precedence of both contract and 
possession, should give title to the vast tract along 
the Pascataqua and stretching eastward to the 
Merrimack. The commission was received with 
regret, even by the officers whom it clothed with 
power. The aged and infirm, but upright and 
popular Cutts accepted of the ofilce of President, 
only to prevent it from falling upon some instru- 

* Edward Randolph, a kinsman of IVIason. 



94 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ment of royalty. The same motive also moved the 

..^^S^ generous and public-spirited Vaughan, and Daniel 
Gilman, Hussey,* and Richard Waldron. These 
men were all favorites of the people ; who, though 
averse to the change, found some alleviation of 
their discontent in the appointment of their trusty 
friends. It was, with the king, a matter of policy 
to smooth the way to an unpopular government, by 

16S0. introducing it through these hands. But no arti- 
fice of that kind could make it satisfactory to the 
people. It struck liberty out of existence, by 
denying them the choice of their own rulers ; and 
they viewed the loss of liberty as a precursor to an 
invasion of their property ; for this government 
had kindled new hopes in the breast of Mason. 

Feb.2c. They, however, submitted in silence. Writs were 
issued for calling a general assembly. An oath of 
allegiance was administered to each voter. A 
public fast was then observed, to propitiate the 
favor of Heaven and the continuance of their 

March " precious and pleasant things."! In March, the 
assembly met at Portsmouth. They immediately 
wrote a letter to the general court at Boston, J full 
of gratitude and respect for their former protectors 
— full of regret for that separation which they had 
no power to prevent. They signified their wish 
for a mutual correspondence, and offered their 
services for defence against the common enemy. 

Laws. Their next care was to frame a code of laws. 
They decreed no less than fifteen capital offences, 
and put witchcraft and idolatry on their black 

Crimes, catalogue. § The president, council, and assem- 

* Lewis's Hist, of Lynn, p. 29. f F. Bellvnap, p. 9L ^ F. Belknap, p. 92. 
^ Council Records, lt5S0. F. Belknap, p. 92. 



N E W H A I\I P S H I R E . 95 

bly, constituted the supreme court, and inferior chap. 
courts were established in the towns. The _-,^_ 
militia was organized, and consisted of one com- Militia. 
pany of foot in each of the four towns, one com- 
pany of artillery at the fort, and one troop of 
horse; all under the command of the veteran 
Waldron. 

The people were now watching, with jealous 
eyes, for the first infringement of their rights. 
They soon discovered it in the duties and restric- 
tions imposed by the acts of trade and navigation. 
The office of collector, surveyor, and searcher of 
the customs, throughout New England, had been 
conferred upon Edward Randolph. Having pub- 
lished an advertisement, requiring that all vessels 
should be entered and cleared with him, he be- 
gan to obstruct the vessels in passing from harbor 
to harbor. In the execution of his commission, he 
seized a ketch belonging to Portsmouth. When ^^^^^** 
brought before the president and council, on the 
complaint of the master of the ketch, he behaved 
with haughty insolence. But the affair terminated 
with a reprimand to himself, and a fine upon his 
deputy, Barefoot. Randolph and his commission 
were equally unpopular at Boston. The decisions 
of the courts there were invariably against him. 
But the people, acting upon the ground that the 
royal authority could be exercised only through 
the president and council,* while they denied the 
authority of Randolph, passed an order of their 
own for the observance of the acts of trade, and 
officers of their own to see it executed. While the ^g^j 
people were resisting the assumptions of this royal Aprils. 

■* Whiten, p. 35. F. Belknap, 93. Council Records, KISO. 



96 HIS TOE Y OF 

CHAP, officer, President Ciitts died, lamented, as he had 

J_ lived beloved, and was succeeded by his deputy, 

Major Waldron. In a sequestered spot, in a gar- 
den, the inhabitants of Portsmouth can now point 
out his grave. The remembrance of his integrity 
and benevolence has survived the tomb. 

1632. Mason was disappointed in the government he 
had been so solicitous to procure. He found that 
President Cutts and a majority of the council were 
opposed to his wishes. He, therefore, on his re- 
turn to England directed all his efforts to procure 
a change. To this end he was assisted by the 
necessities of the king. Negligent of the interests 
of his people, and careless of glory, Charles II. 
lavished their treasures with thoughtless extrava- 
gance. He raised immoderate supplies of money, 
and squandered it with profusion. Consequently, 
he was oppressed with debts, and straitened in his 
revenue.* By surrendering one fifth of the quit 
rents to the king, for the support of a royal 
^ Jan. 25. govemor, .Mason procured the appointment of Ed- 
_ ward Cranfield. 

^^I^^i- The ruling passion of Cranfield was avarice. 
Mason, perceiving this, secured to him the payment 
of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum. This 
made the government of this poor province, num- 
bering scarcely four thousand inhabitants, appear 
to him a dazzling and inviting object ; and he came 
over less careful for the interests of the people 
than for the bettering of his fortune. Arbitrary, 
needy, and rapacious, he made no secret of his ob- 
ject in accepting the office, and openly sought to 

* Hume, vol. IV.,, p. 405. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 97 

return the liberality of Mason by a devotion to the chap 

*' V. 

proprietary claim. „— J-^ 

By his commission he was vested with extraor- May 9. 
dinary powers. He could adjourn, prorogue and 
dissolve general courts. He had a negative voice 
on all acts of government. He could suspend any 
of the council. He appointed judges and all sub- 
ordinate officers, and executed the powers of 
vice-admiral. Within six days after the publi- 
cation of his commission, he suspended the popu- 
lar leaders, Waldron and Martyn. From this 
exercise of power, the people plainly saw the 
dangerous designs formed against them. They 
perceived that the sole design of these novel and 
extraordinary powers was to facilitate the entrance 
of the claimant on the lands.* They had subdued 
the rough wilderness, and defended their families 
and estates against a savage enemy. Would they 
, surrender their property to satisfy a doubtful and 

I disputable claim ? 

Meanwhile the assembly was summoned. Cran- 
field, to make a show of concihation, restored 
Waldron and Martyn to the council. The assem- Nov. 

•^ 14. 

bly, hoping to detach him from the interest of Ma- 
son, voted him two hundred and fifty pounds. 
This put the rapacious governor in good humor, 
but it was of short duration. At the next session, ja„.'2o. 
the assembly refused to pass a bill for the support 
of government, and he hastily dissolved them. 
This kindled the popular discontent to a flame. 
The public voice against him was loud and violent, 
and the people, asseihbling in public meetings, be- 
gan to act in concert. They demanded redress. 

* F. Belknap, p. 97. 

13 



98 HISTORY OF • 

CHAP. The more moderate only gave vent to their resent- 
J!.l^ ment m murmurs. But the rash and thoughtless 
proceeded to acts of rebellion and violence. A 
tumultuous body assembled from Exeter and 
Hampton, headed by Edward Gove, declaring for 
liberty and reformation. Marching at the head of 
his followers, Gove went from town to town, 
bearing arms in his hands, calling upon the people 
to rise and overturn the government. But the ma- 
jority, though disaffected, were not prepared for 
open revolt. Gove, finding himself but feebly sup- 
ported, paused from his measures, and peaceably 
surrendered. He was convicted of high treason, 
and received sentence of death. All his accom- 
plices were set at liberty by the king, and Gove 
himself, instead of being led to execution,* was 
imprisoned in the tower of London — that prison 
whose gloomy walls have so often echoed the sighs 
of innocence, genius, and virtue. 

On the fourteenth of February the governor 
Fefn called upon the inhabitants to take out leases from 
Mason. This would be an acknowledgment of his 
claim, and they with one consent refused. 

He threatened to seize the principal estates and 
beggar the owners. His threats, however, intim- 
idated no one. His position was well understood. 
He was determined, with the aid of the governor, 
to enforce his claim to the soil of New Hampshire, 
and the people were determined not to submit to 
it. 

Cranfield, having assumed the whole legislative 
power, acted as if the assembly had either no 
existence, or no rights. He assumed to alter the 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., n., p. 44. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 99 

value of money, changed the bounds of townships, chap. 

and estabhshed the fees of office. When the acts ^ 

of trade were not observed in Massachusetts, he 
prohibited vessels from that colony to enter the 
harbor of Portsmouth. Notwithstanding these 
multiplied and extensive powers,* Cranfield was 
dissatisfied with his position. He discovered, with 
chagrin, that the path which he had seen leading 
to fortune, ended in public hatred. It was evident, 
also, that his hopes of sudden wealth must be pro- 
tracted to a length of years ; for he must apply for 
money to the people he had so much abused. As 
he could hope for nothing from their favor, he 
started a vague rumor of war, trusting that he 
could turn to his own benefit the measures which 
the people should adopt for defence. He called 
an assembly at Great Island and tendered them a jan.n. 
bill for supplies. The liouse debated it awhile, 
and returned it with their negative. At this he 
was highly incensed, and dissolved them. Sus- 
pecting the influence of the Rev. Mr. Moody, of 
Portsmouth, a strenuous advocate of the popular 
cause, he from that hour marked Moody as an 
object for vengeance. Soon after the dissolution 
of the assembly, he sent an order to Moody, re- 
quiring him to administer to himself, with Mason 
and Ilinks, " the Lord's supper," according to the 
liturgy. This vindictive and arbitrary mandate 
was contrary to the laws of England. By the stat- 
ute of 13 and 14 Charles II., it is enacted that no 
person shall presume to consecrate and administer 
"the Lord's supper," before he is ordained a 
priest by " Episcopal ordination." Moody had 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., I.; p. 261. 



100 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, not been episcopally ordained; and, as Cranfield 
_,J^ foresaw, refused to obey the order. This furnished 
the desired pretext for a criminal prosecution. 
When brought to the bar. Moody pleaded in his 
defence the laws of England, and the rights of 
conscience. Edgarly and Fryer, two of the 
justices, pleaded strenuously for his acquittal, and 
were rewarded by removal from office. Moody 
was condemned, and, to the great joy of Cotton 
Mather, was committed to prison. At a time 
when no clergyman could doubt the reality of 
witchcraft, without danger of a dismissal from his 
society. Moody exposed it as a delusion, and de- 
nounced the Salem magistrates as murderers. It 
was but natural that such a man should incur the 
displeasure of Cotton Mather ; for, while that 
fierce and sullen bigot was riding through the 
country, fanning the excitement and dragging in- 
nocent victims to the gallows. Moody visited them 
in prison, warned them of their danger, plan- 
ned their rescue, and assisted them to escape. 
Throughout the whole dark period of the Salem 
excitement, he was the friend of the unfortunate 
accused; and while Boston and Salem, the theatre 
of Mather's influence, were immolating their own 
citizens on the altar of superstition, Portsmouth, 
under the pastoral influence of Moody, had learned 
to despise the delusion, and became the asylum of 
the accused. 

It is thus that a great man sometimes stands out 
amidst the follies of his time, a solitary monument 
to the triumph of reason. Escaping, like Galileo, 
from the narrow prejudices and the conceited 
learning of his cotemporaries, he seems to pass the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 101 

veil which divides the present from the future, and 
while to mortal eyes the future seems shrouded in 
darkness, he beholds the dawn of a more enlight- 
ened afje. 

In obedience to an order* from England, Cran- ^^^^7. 
field once more convened the assembly. But they 
refused to vote anything for the support of govern- 
ment. " They are persons of such a mutinous 
disposition," said he, in his letter to the Secretary 
of State, " that it is not safe to let them convene." 
He, however, called them together once more, to ji,iy22. 
pass acts for the suppression of piracy, and to raise 
money. They passed the acts, but refused the 
money, and he called them no more. Vexed at 
their obstinacy and the failure of his plans, he re- 
solved upon a bold usurpation of pow^er. Having 
filled the council with creatures of his own, he 
undertook to impose taxes on the people, by the 
authority of the governor and council, without the 
concurrence of the assembly. This was in defi- 
ance of the plain letter of the provincial laws. 
The people were resolved not to submit to such 
an imposition, and formed combinations for mutual 
aid and resistance. At Exeter they attacked the De..22. 
sheriff and drove him off witJi clubs. Most of the 
constables went over to the people, and refused to 
levy upon their goods. f Such as persisted, met 
with insult in every form. When they attempted 
to enter the houses, tho women heated brimming 
kettles of water, and poured upon their heads. J The 
military were next called to aid the \\v\n of civil 
power, and a troop of horse were ordered to march 

* Orders of Cranfield. N. H. Hist. Coll., II., p. 200. 

t N. H. Hist. Coll., III., p. 417. % Bancroft. F, Belknap. Whiton. 



10:2 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, out on a certain day, completely mounted and 
._^_^ armed. But the military were the people ; and 
1685. when the day came, not a soldier appeared. Thus 
foiled in every direction. New Hampshire began 
to wear to the eyes of the governor a cheerless 
aspect. The voice of complaint reached England, 
and drew down upon him the royal censure.* The 
king at length " granted him leave of absence," 
and Walter Barefoot, his deputy, succeeded to the 
chair of the chief magistracy. 

From the days of Cranfield down to the time of 
Sir Edward Packenham, English governors and 
generals, like English writers, have mistaken the 
character of the American people. It is only by 
the severest lessons of experience, that American 
courage and love of liberty have been made known 
to the English armies. Cranfield believed that 
menaces and prosecutions would bend the necks 
of the Congregationalists to the yoke of Episcopal 
forms ; and Packenham, leading on the veterans 
of Wellington, despised the American rifle in 
the hands of back-woodsmen. The former sacri- 
ficed his power to his error ; the latter lost his life. 
Both found the Americans more resolute in defence 
of their rights than cautious of danger, or submis- 
sive to usurpation. 

The rising settlements were now fast gain- 
ing upon the wilderness. One after another the 
hardy pioneers of that day progressed into the 
forest, until they reached the southern borders of 
Cheshire county. The hand of oppression was 
lightly laid upon them. The course of the 

* Articles of complaint against Lieut. Gov. Cranfield. N. H. Hist. Coll., 
I., p. 267. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 103 

government was conciliating. The king was 
preparing them for the introduction of a governor- 
general. 

Three years before his death, Charles II., had 
declared the charter of Massachusetts forfeited, jgg^ 
James II., his successor, inherited the arbitrary Feb. e. 
disposition of his brother Charles. The colonies 
could hope for no favors from him. He organized igse. 
a new government and placed at its head, Joseph May 25. 
Dudley. But the administration of Dudley was 
short. In December, Sir Edmund Andros arrived Dec.30. 
at Boston, with a commission appointing him 
captain-general and governor-in-chief of New 
England. He began with fair professions and 
conciliatory measures ; but he soon disclosed his 
real object in accepting the appointment. It was 
to enrich himself* Finding the council backward 
in aiding his oppressive exactions, he appointed 
to that body none but willing instruments. Thus 
fortified, he pronounced all the land titles forfeited 
by the surrender of the Massachusetts charter ; 
and, that he might cut oif any reliance which the 
people had upon titles purchased of the Indians, 
he declared an Indian deed to be no better than 
the scratch of a bear's paw. His intention was to 
compel all the landholders to purchase of him new 
titles. In addition to this, he imposed upon them 
exorbitant taxes. 

To silence the popular complaint, he restrained 
the liberty of the press. That the people might 
not consult upon their grievances, he prohibited 
town meetings, except one in each year. To pre- 
vent complaints from reaching England, he forbade 

* N. H. Hist, Coll.. p. 2G9. 



104 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, any one to leave the colony without permission 

, ,!_ from the governor. 

The people had borne with this "rapacious 

1688. plunderer"* for two years. Their patience was 
exhausted. Meanwhile, the strides of King James 
towards arbitrary power were preparing the way 
to a revolution in England. His reign had been 
one continued invasion of civil and religious 
liberty.! It terminated in his expulsion from the 
throne ; which William III. ascended in 1688. 

1688. When the news of this great revolution reached 
Boston, Andros affected to discredit the rumor, 
and imprisoned the man who brought it. But the 
people believed it, and were filled with joy. 
Their native love of freedom kindled at the 
prospect of deliverance. Actuated by a kindred 
spirit with their brethren in England, they deter- 
mined to act with similar promptitude. Accord- 

1689. ingly, on the morning of the eighteenth of April, 
is" the drums in Boston beat to arms. Crowds came 

flocking in from the country, as the day advanced, 
to the assistance of the Bostonians ; and Andros 
was seized and thrown into prison. A committee 
of safety was hastily organized, and assumed, for 
the time, the functions of government. Andros 

1690. Vvas afterwards, by order of King William, sent 
to England, a prisoner of state, and New Hamp- 
shire was without a government. For some time 
the people waited for orders from England. None 

Jan. came, and they chose deputies to form a plan of 
government. They met, and resolved upon a 

March => , ,«- , nni • • • 

12. union with Massachusetts. Ihen' petition was 
readily accepted at Boston, and New Hampshire 
P once more became a part of Massachusetts. 

* Whiton. t Humej vol. IV., p. •163. 



16SS. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 105 

Amidst the oppressions of Andros,* and the chap. 

IV 

contests with Mason, tlie colony became involved .^J^ 
in an Indian war. The seeds of hatred, long 
since sown, had begun to spring up. The Indians 
had brooded over tlie seizure of their brethren, by 
Major Waldron, with deep thougli silent resent- 
ment. Thirteen years had not been sufiicient to 
erase from their hearts the remembrance of injury 
and the thirst for vengeance. Besides this, they 
alleged other grievances and immediate causes of 
war. In vain did the government strive to concil- 
iate them with presents, and eagerly sue to them 
to make a treaty of peace. The Ossipees, the 
Pequawkets, and even a portion of the Pena- 
cooks, united to raise the warwhoop. A grandson 
of Passaconaway led the dreadful enterprise. It 
required all the influence of Wanalonset, although 
the dying charge of his father was often repeated, 
to persuade a portion of the Penacooks to peace. 
The Pequawkets were the movers of tlie war, and 
were not without provocation. The mansion of the 
Baron de St. Castine stood at this time at Penob- 
scot. The baron, tliough of an ancient and proud 
family of France, chose to lead the life of an 
Indian trader in the wilds of America. He had 
adopted Indian customs, and h.ad married a 
daughter of the sachem Madokewando. Andros, 
unprovoked, sailed up the Penobscot in the Rose 
frigate, and plundered his house and fort, scarcely 
leaving him the ornaments of his chapel. This 
called on Castine for revenge. Instigated by him, 
the Indians began to commit depredations at 
North Yarmouth. Some of them were pursued 

^- N. U. Hist. Coll., I.. 209. 

14 



106 HISTORY OF 

CHAP and seized. Andres, hoping to conciliate those 
_!;_ whom he had so wantonly and cruelly offended, 
commands the captured to be set free. He 
trusted that the enemy, in return for this mildness, 
would liberate their prisoners. But this had not 
the desired effect. The Indians retained their 
prisoners, and put them to death with the most 
cruel tortures. Andros now changed his mild 
policy, and led into their country an army of 
seven hundred men. They saw not an Indian in 
their whole march. 

Meanwhile the Indians were preparing for hos- 
tilities in New Hampshire. Some of those whom 
Major Waldron sent to Boston to be sold into 
slavery, had returned, and would not let their 
brethren rest unrevenged. It required but little 
time to concert an attack upon Dover ; for 
Waldron was there. The Penacooks, the Pe- 

r 

quawkets, and the Ossipees, are called into the 
league. And now, all things being ready, the 
Indians set forward. It is the evening of the 
16S9. twenty-seventh of June. Waldron sleeps in one of 
^^^ the garrisoned houses. Two of the squaws apply 
at each of the houses and ask leave to lodge by 
the fire. They are welcomed ; as is also the 
chief, Mesandowit, who went to the Major's 
house and supped with him in the evening. 
" Brother Waldron," said the crafty savage, with 
jocular and usual familiarity, "what would you 
do, if the strange Indians should come?" "I 
can assemble an hundred men," replied the vete- 
ran, " by lifting up my finger." In this unsus- 
pecting confidence the family retired to rest. The 
red men have " trapped the lion in his lair." 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 107 

Night advances. At the moment of deepest sleep, chap. 

the gates are softly opened by the squaws, and a L_ 

shrill whistle breaks the silence of night. It is the 
signal agreed upon for attack. Instantly the In- 
dians rush in to take their long-meditated revenge. 
Aroused by the noise, Major Waldron starts from 
his sleep, seizes his sword, and, though bowed with 
the weight of eighty years, drove the assailants back 
through two doors. But in doing this, unluckily 
an Indian darted behind him and stunned him with 
the blow of a hatchet. The Indians immediately 
raise him up from the floor, and setting him in a 
chair on the table, they begin the work of torture. 
They cut off his nose and ears, and gash his breast 
with their knives ; each one exclaiming, with 
fiendish mirth, " I cross out my account."* Faint 
from the loss of blood, he was falling from the 
table, when an Indian held his own sword under 
him and pierced him through. Thus fell this 
gallant and venerable man. In this closing scene 
of his existence he displayed the same determined 
valor which had made him, through life, the terror 
and admiration of the Indians. 

After attacking other houses, and killing many, 
the Indians effected a speedy retreat, and sold 
their prisoners in Canada. Aroused by these 
barbarities, the government sent a party, under 
Capt. Noyes, to attack the Penacooks. But 
they could only destroy their corn. Another 
party, under Capt. Wincol, were sent to Lake 
Winnipiseogee, but they killed only one or two of 
the enemy. Instigated by the French, who were 
now at war with England, the Indians continued 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., II., 46. 



108 HISTORY OF NEW H A 31 P S H I R E . 

their depredations. The Count de Frontinac, 
governor of Canada, eager to distinguish himself 
1690. "^ ^^^^ cause of his royal master, the king of 
France, detached three parties of French and 
Indians from Canada. These murderous bands, 
pursuing different routes, spread devastation along 
their whole march. Many are the affecting inci- 
dents mingled in the history of this war. Women, 
with babes at their breasts, were carried captive 
in the depth of winter, and when their infants 
became burdensome, they were taken from their 
arms and dashed against the nearest tree. Some- 
times, in mid-harvest, the husbandman was shot 
in the field, and the crops burned on which the 
subsistence of a desolate family depended. 
Young children were marched through the dreary 
winter snows to Canada,* and in these protracted 
journcyings suffered a thousand deaths. 

Amidst these barbarities, an instance of Indian 
gratitude now and then occurs, to brighten, by 
its dim lustre, the gloomy recital. Here and 
there, among their captives, they would discover 
some one wlin had bofriended tliom ; and such 
were invariably set at liberty. In the voice of 
some feeble woman, crying out under her tor- 
tures, the quick ear of the Indian would discover 
his former benefactress, and he would spare her 
life. Though gentle pity seemed never to inhabit 
the breast of the North American Indian, he 
was proud to remember favors, and never forgot 
to revenge an injury. 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., v., 109. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CoNQL'EST of Canada attempted — It fails — Governor Allen— Union with I\Ias- 
sachusetts dissolved — Sir William Phipps— The small-pox first imported 
into New Hampshire — Peace with the Indians — The war resumed — IMado- 
kewaudo — Usher — Durham destroyed — Peace — The return of the captives 
— The Earl of Bellomont — His character — His death — Death of Allen — 
War between France and England — Dudley — His conference with the In- 
dians — Indian depredations — Expedition against Port Royal — It fails - 
Congress of delegates — Second expedition against Port Royal — It is suc- 
cessful — Deathof Hilton— Expedition to Quebec— The fleet wrecked in the 
St. Lawrence — One thousand men perish — Peace — The captives return — 
Vaughan — John Wentworth— Industry revives — Monopoly resisted — 
Gov. Shute holds a conference with the Indians on an island in the Ken- 
nebec — The Scottish emigrants — Their character. 

The people of New England now regarded chap. 

Canada as the source of their calamities, and .^ !^ 

resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country. 
With but feeble resources, they formed the bold 
design to subject that province to the crown of 
England. For this object, an army of two thou- 
sand men, under the command of Sir William 
Phipps, sailed from Boston for (Quebec. Winter 
met them on their arrival. The troops became 
dispirited, sickness prevailed in the camp, and 
this enterprise, which promised so much, and 
involved the colonies deeply in debt, ended, having 
effected nothing. Fortunately, however, at this 
time the Indians ceased hostilities, and remained l^^l. 

June 9. 

quiet till the summer of 1 69 1 . 

An important political revolution conferred the 1692. 



110 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, appointment of governor upon Samuel Allen, of 

.^ L, London, and that of lieutenant-governor upon his 

son-in-law John Usher, of Boston. With un- 
feigned regret the people saw the dissolution of 
their second brief union with Massachusetts. Al- 
len had purchased of the heirs of Captain Mason 
their title to the soil of New Hampshire. It was 
sufficient to make this announcement received 
with coldness, that the inhabitants apprehended a 
1692. revival of Mason's claim. 

About the same time a new form of government, 

Whiton, . . 

p. 4s. under the second charter, was established in Mas- 
sachusetts. This raised to the governor's chair 
an obsure boy, born on the banks of the Kenne- 
bec. He was of a poor family, and at the age 
of twenty-two could not read. But he discovered, 
and drew up from the depths of the sea, the 
treasures of an old Spanish vessel. This gave 
him wealth. Wealth commanded influence ; and 
thus was appointed to the post of governor that 
remarkable child of fortune, Sir William Phipps. 

To the calamities of the war, now raging, were 
superadded the horrors of the small-pox ; a disease 
then little understood, and its treatment imperfect. 
Its importation in cotton bales from the West In- 
dies to Portsmouth and Greenland, was an event 
which, from the nature of the disease and its well- 
known fatality among the Indians, was calculated 
to fill the colony with alarm. As if the intellect 
were destined to be affected simultaneously with 
the body, the public mind at this time was most 
strongly infected with witchcraft.* 

Some good, however, was now to be mingled 

* See page 65. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. Ill 

with the ills of fortune. Wearied with the contest, char 

and some of their chief men being in captivity, the !_ 

Indians became, in their turn, advocates for peace. 1693. 
They longed for the time to come when they could 
remain idle in their wigwams ; and they needed a 
space to recruit. Though their animosity still 
burned against the English, they came into the 
fort at Pemaquid, and there entered into a solemn 
covenant of amity. They acknowledged their 
subjection to the crown of England — engaged to 
abandon the French interest — promised perpetual 
peace — to forbear private revenge — to restore all 
captives — and they delivered hostages for the per- 
formance of their engagements. 

To the people of New Hampshire this peace 
gave a grateful respite. They were dispirited and 
reduced. The war had broken up their trade and 
husbandry, and weighed them down Vvith a heavy 
burden of debt. The earth also was less fruitful 
than before ; as if the kindly skies withheld their 
gifts at such an exhibition of the follies and cruel- 
ties of man. The governor was obliged to impress 
men to guard the outposts ; and sometimes these 
were dismissed for want of provisions.* In this 
situation, they applied to Massachusetts for assist- 
ance. Their application found that colony over- 
whelmed with witchcraft, and rent with feuds 
about the charter. Superstition and party spirit 
had usurped the place of reason, and the defence 
of themselves and their neighbors was neglected 
for the ghostly orgies of the witch-finder and the 
quarrels of the old and new chartists. 

* F. Belknap, p. 136. See also Province Records, Journal House and 
Assembly for 1692—1716, in the office of the Secretary of State at Concord. 



112 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. The peace, which they had so recently hailed 
__J_ with joy, was destined to be of short continuance. 
1691. The spirit of Madokawando was abroad amongst 
the Indians, for the plundering of Castine yet 
rankled in the breast of his father. Villieu, at the 
head of two hundred and fifty Indians, collected 
from the tribes of St. John, Penobscot, and Nor- 
ridgwock, marched to Oyster river. Durham* is 
the object of attack. It has twelve garrisoned 
houses ; but the inhabitants dream not of danger, 
and are scattered in their own dwellings. The 
Indians approach the place undiscovered, and halt 
at the falls. It is the evening of the seventeenth 
Juij i'^- Qf July. They are formed in two divisions, and 
proceed on both sides of the river. These divi- 
sions are now subdivided into small parties, and 
they plant themselves in ambush near every house, 
that the destruction of the town may be sudden, 
overwhelming, and complete. They are to be 
ready for the attack at the rising of the sun. The 
firing of the first gun is to be the signal. Happily, 
it was fired too early, and a part of the inhabitants 
escaped. Five houses were destroyed, and an 
hundred persons carried captive. The next year, 
169-3. the enemy remained inactive, but in 1696, a body 
1696. of them, coming from the eastward in canoes, 
made an attack at Portsmouth plain, and took 
nineteen prisoners. A company of militia, under 
Captain Shackford, was immediately detached in 
pursuit. They came upon the Indians at Break- 
fast Hill,t while they were cooking their morning 
repast, and, by a sudden onset, retook all the pris- 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., v., pp. 129—153. 

f Between Greenland and Rye. blather's Magnalia. lib. 7., p. 86. 



N E W H A M P S II I Pv E . 1 13 

oners. At Dover and Exeter many of the settlers chap. 
were killed or captured ; and before the close of 
1697, the widow of President Ciitts, was among 
the number of victims.* Madokawando was now 
revenged. He gathered up all the scalps taken in 
the war, and carried them to Canada — a fit offering 
to be made to Count Frontenac. Thus the base 
deeds of Governor Andros were visited upon the 
innocent and unoffending. The Indian refuses to 
discriminate. To his mind, the guilt of the race 
is involved in the crime of each individual offender; 
and when he imbrues his hands in the blood of a 
guiltless child, it is because his code of justice 
visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren. 

During the war, Usherf continued to administer 
the government, and to alienate the affections of 
the people. He had amassed a fortune by specu- 
lation, and, like many others who have been sur- 
prised to find themselves suddenly rich, he became 
bloated to a size corresponding with his fortune. 
He assumed the airs of authority, and affected a 
tone of despotic severity. 

The airs of such a man as Usher could only 
excite the contempt of the hardy colonists, who 
had faced too many real dangers, and grappled with 
too many real horrors, to be awed by the pomp of 
ignorance, or terrified at the wrath of a fool. H« 
was profoundly illiterate and weak-minded ; and 
seemed to be decked with authority and crowned 
with success, only to^ illustrate to the world that 
fortune and merit are not inseparable companions. 

* F. Belknap, p. 141. 

t Province Records, Journal House and Assembly, 1092 — 1716. 

15 



114, HISTORY OF 

CHAP. He was soon superseded by the appointment of 

William Partridge, as lieutenant-governor and 

/ime. commander-in-chief, in the absence of Allen. The 
counsellors whom Usher had suspended, resumed 
their seats, and he returned to Boston.* 
The The news of peace, coming at this time, equally 
''^Ryl" surprised and rejoiced the inhabitants. The gov- 
169S. ernor of Canada signified to the Indians that he 
could no longer aid them in the war. He advised 
them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives. 
Many of them, however, had long since despaired 
of release. The woes of exile did not silence the 
afirections and passions. Some of the young cap- 
tives learned to love the life they led. They 
intermarried with the Indians, and preferred to 
make their homes and their graves in the forest. 
Even when invited to return, they refused, to the 
poignant regret of their friends. But in the path- 
less wilderness through which they travelled to 
reach Canada, an inhuman massacre took place, 
as often as the sick and aged became a burden. 
The infant, whose feeble cry irritated the sullen 
Indian, was dashed against a rock or a tree, before 
the eyes of its mother, with a wanton indifference 
which indicated almost a total want of parental 
affection and sympathy in the savage breast. 
Those who were spared were compelled to pass, 
iunclad and almost unfed, over mountains and 
through swamps and interminable forests, often 
wading in deep snows. But the pious benevolence 
of the French missionaries often met them in their 
dreary marches and soothed the sorrows of exile. 
It is difficult, at this day, to estimate fully the 

* Province Eecords, Journal Council, 1696 — 1722. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 115 



discourai^ino' circumstances under which the fa- chap. 

. .VI 

thers carried on this war. They were not fighting 

on a broad theatre, where their achievements would 
be the theme of a workl's admiration ; but with a 
wily, lurking foe, who never felt the force of that 
noble maxim of Tacitus, that " victory is most 
honorable when mercy spares the vanquished.*'* 
If they should be taken prisoners, their lives would 
be spared only to protract their tortures ; or they 
must be led at the heels of their captors, until 
slavery should consummate the rights of the victors 
over the conquered. 

Early in the summer, Allen came to America. 1698. 
Six years had elapsed since the date of his appoint- 
ment. The people knew that the Earl of Bello- 
mont,f a nobleman of accomplished manners and 
liberal views, a friend of the late revolution, had 
received the appointment of governor of New York, 
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Allen's 
commission, however, remained in force till the 
arrival of his successor. His administration lasted 
a year, and was one continued scene of alterca- 
tion. J At the end of that time, Bellomont arrived, , 

and was received by the people with the greatest 

1699 
cordiality. The counsellors, who had refused juiyai'. 

to sit at the board with Usher, resumed their 

places, § and Partridge, who had been removed to 

make way for Usher, was restored. From this 

time onward, througli a period of forty-two years. 

New Hampshire and Massachusetts were placed 

under the same governor. Each state had its own 

* Annals of Tacitus, b. 12, s. 19. f N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., 251. 

:j: Prov. Rec, Jour. Council and Assembly, 1692 — 1716. Jour. Council, 
1696—1722. ^ Prov. Rec, J. C. and A., 1692-1716. 



116 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, council,* its own assembly of representatives, and 
.^^J^ its own laws. The council having been con- 
stituted in accordance with the popular wishes, 
the next care of the people was to reorganize the 
courts. This they did by selecting all the judges 
from the decided opponents of the Masonian claim. 
When things had been thus happily arranged, the 

1701. Earl of Bellomont died at*New York. He was a 
5. man of superior talents and of an energetic charac- 
ter. He had always been the defender of popular 
rights ; and when he was removed by death, the 
people mourned the loss of a nobleman, who, 
though faithful to the king, never oppressed the 
people. In his short administration, he had sv^^ept 
from the seas the pirates who had so long harassed 
the commerce of the colonies. Captain Kidd and 
his daring followers, whose adroitness had eluded 
the most vigilant search, were captured by Bello- 
mont, and sent to England in chains. Before the 
Earl's death, Allen had begun to agitate the Ma- 
sonian claim. Tired of controversy, the people 
proposed to him terms of compromise. Allen 

* himself, advanced in age and failing in health, de- 
sired to pass the remainder of his days in quiet, 
and sought an accommodation with the people. 
A settlement was on the point of being agreed to, 
when his death presented a result so desirable. 
His son revived the controversy, but without 
1715. success. The death of the son relieved the inhab- 
itants from the fear of being disturbed in their 

1702. possessions. At the death of Bellomont, Joseph 
July 13. Dudley was appointed governor of Massachusetts 

and New Hampshire. Favorably disposed to the 

* p. R.. Jour. Council, 1696—1722. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 117 

interests of the colonists, and opposed to the Ma- chap. 

sonian claim, he was received with cordiality. L_ 

The next year Usher was commissioned Lieut. 
Governor. His rival, Partridge, being thus super- 1703. 
seded, retired from the province. 

The peace that followed the treaty of Ryswick, 
was of short duration. The seeds of war had been 
sown in Europe ; and while England and France 
were engaged in hostilities at home, it was natural 
for them to make their American possessions the 
theatre of warlike operations. The English claimed 
the territory as far as the St. Croix. French ships 
of war had driven the English fishermen from the 
banks of Nova Scotia, and France had attempted 
to prevent the English from settling east of the 
Kennebunk. 

Such was the posture of affairs, when Dudley* 1702. 

entered upon his administration. Fearful of an -^"'y^^- 

outbreak, he immediately sought a conference with 

the Indians. They had solemnly agreed to be at 

1703 
peace. He was met by delegates from the Nor- juncso. 

ridgwocks, the Penobscots, the Pequawkets, the 
Penacooks and Ameriscogins. They presented 
him with a belt of wampum in token of their sin- 
cerity, and led him to two heaps of stones that 
stood in the valley. These had been raised years 
before, and, as a pledge of peace, were named the 
Two Brothers. To these they now added other 
stones, in token of ratifying ancient friendship. 
*' High as the sun is above the earth," exclaimed 
the savages, in the plenitude of their professions, 
*' so far distant from us is the least design to 
break the peace." Yet, in less than six weeks, a 

* Prov. Rec, Jour. C. and A., 1G92— 1716, 



118 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, body of French and Indians laid waste all the 
..^__ settlements from Casco to Wells', killing and 
^^f^""^ carrying captive one hundred and thirty persons. 
Scarcely had another week elapsed, when they at- 
tacked Hampton village and killed five. 

The whole frontier, from Deerfield on the west, 
to Casco on the east, was now thrown into con- 
fusion and alarm. The women and children re- 
tired to the garrisons — the men went armed into 
the fields. Few of the lurking foe were taken, 
though the government offered a bounty of forty 
pounds for scalps. 

With the return of spring, hostilities were resumed 
afresh, and Indian vengeance fell heavily upon the 
settlements on Oyster and Lamprey rivers. They 
were pursued to Haverhill, in Coos, and one or 

1705. two were killed. Early the next year, Col. Hilton 
led two hundred and seventy men on snow-shoes 
to Norridgwock, to attack them in their winter 
quarters. It was a fruitless march. But an ex- 

1706. ploit was performed the next year, which made 
up in some degree for the failure of that expe- 
dition. It was the defence of a house in Durham* 
by a few women. These heroines, in the absence 
of their husbands, heard the war-whoop, and saw 
the Indians approaching to attack the house. 
What was to be done ? It was impossible to re- 
treat. Should they surrender ? Without a 
moment's hesitation, they resolved to defend the 
house. Throwing on their husbands' hats, and 
disguising themselves as much as possible, they 
assumed the resolute action of men, and com- 
menced a smart fire. The deception was com- 

* F. Belkaap. N. H. Hist. Coll., V., pp. 129—153. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 119 

pletc. The Indians, supposing the house to be chap. 
defended by a strong garrison, fled. Thus did __!^ 
these women, with a quickness of invention, 
courage, and decision of character, worthy of the 
most distinguished heroism of ancient or modern 
times, successfully devise a plan, with the utmost 
presence of mind, in the midst of danger, which 
saved their lives and those of their husbands and 
families. 

After killing twenty Indians at the eastward, 1707. 
the colonists resolved to attack Port Royal, the 
capital of the French settlements.* New Hamp- 
shire united with the other colonies and sent thither 
a considerable army. Under convoy of two men- May is 
of-war, the forces approached the place. At their ~ 
landing, they were received into the midst of an 
ambuscade. The Indians were hidden amongst the 
sedge. Walton and Chesley,t at the head of the 
New Hampshire troops, who were already on 
shore, pushed up the beach, and attacked the ene- 
my in flank. The Indians fled. But the advan- 
tages of victory could not be reaped, for there were 
operating here, on a smaller scale, the same 
jealousies and bickerings amongst officers, which 
have ruined the prospects of the most splendid 
military enterprises. A quarrel broke out between 
the military and naval officers. Nothing could 
reconcile differences, or inspire union. The army 
was finally put under the direction of three super- 
visors, and the whole affair came to a wretched 
end.J The army returned, sickly, disheartened, August. 



* Pennhallow — Charlevoix. f F. Belknap, p. 174. 

t F. Belknap, p. 175. P. R., J. 0. and A., 1692—1716. 



120 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, and ashamed. They had lost sixteen killed, and 

.J^ as many wounded. 

The colony at this time was in a dismal state. 
The best warriors were abroad in pursuit of the 
enemy. Those at home were harassed more than 
ever by the cruel foe. Not an acre of land could 
be tilled, except within sight of the garrisoned 
houses. Their lumber trade and fisheries were 
declining, taxes increasing, and there was no pros- 
pect of an end to the war. Besides, the Indians 
had killed one hundred and thirty, between Casco 
and Wells — five at Hampton, twenty-four at Oys- 
ter River, five at Exeter, two at Dover, one be- 
tween Exeter and Kingston. 

Under these discouragements, great and over- 

1708. whelming as they were, the people had preserved 
their fortitude. They maintained all their garri- 

1709. sons, so that not one of them was cut off in New 
Hampshire during the war.* 

1709. In autumn, a congress of delegates, of all the 
colonies, met at Rhode Island, and determined 
upon an expedition against Canada. The British 
ministry approved of the proposal, and the imme- 
diate reduction of Port Royal was agreed upon. 

1710. Accordingly, an English force came over in five 
frigates, and a bomb-ketch. They were joined by 
the colonial troops, and sailed from Boston on the 

Sept. eighteenth of September. On the twenty-fourth 
they arrived at the place. The governor, despair- 
ing to hold out against so formidable a force, sur- 
oct.5. rendered, after the firing of a few shots. 

At the moment of organizing this expedition, 
and before the appointment of officers, the people 

* F. Belknap, p. 175. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 121 

of New Hampshire were called upon to mourn the chap. 

loss of their favorite son, and bravest defender, '^ 

Col. Winthrop Hilton. He fell into an ambush, 
and was slain by the Indians. They had long July 22. 
thirsted for his blood, and waited patiently to take 
him. At length they saw him go out with a party 
of men to peel the bark from some trees which had 
been felled. While engaged in the work, they 
rushed upon them, and killed two ; one of whom 
was Hilton. Their guns were wet, and they could 
make no defence. Thus died Col. Hilton, univer- 
sally lamented. , On the west bank of Lamprey 
river, in his own field, by the side of his American 
ancestors, where the descendants of four gene- 
rations have since been gathered around him, the 
remains of the gallant man repose. He was 
buried with honors due to his rank and charac- 
ter. The inscription upon his moss-covered monu- 
ment shows where the remains of a man, who sin- 
cerely loved and faithfully served "both God and 
his country," have long since mouldered into 
dust.* 

After the death of Hilton, Capt. Walton, with 
one hundred and seventy men, traversed the eastern 
shores in pursuit of the Indians. They encamped 
on an island, and by the smoke of their first fire 
some Indians, mistaking them for some of their 
own tribe, were decoyed to the camp and made 
prisoners. Among these was the sachem of Nor- 
ridgwock. He had been an active and fierce war- 
rior. When he found himself in tlie hands of his 
enemies, he surveyed them with haughty disdain. 
When required to disclose the lurking-places of his 

* N. H. Hist. CoU. 

16 



122 HISTORY Of 

CHAP, warriors, he refused ; when they threatened him 

_,^ with death, and made before his eyes the prepara- 
tions to execute him, he laughed scornfully. His 
wife, being an eye-witness of the scene, was so in- 
timidated as to make the discoveries which the cap- 
tors had tried in vain to extort from the sachem.* 
They followed to the place pointed out by her, 
and returned with seven scalps. This success, 
inconsiderable as it may appear, kept up the spirits 
of the people, and added to the loss of the enemy, 
who were now daily diminishing by sickness and 
famine. 16. 

The success of the second expedition against 

1711. Port Royal, encouraged an attempt, the next year, 
on Q,uebec ; and an agent was despatched to Eng- 

1711. land to solicit aid. To the surprise of all, the min- 
isters of Queen Anne acceded to the proposal, and 
a fleet came over, under the command of Admiral 
Walker, consisting of fifteen ships of war, fifty 
transports, and six store-ships. The troops which 
they brought, had been selected from the veteran 
legions of the Duke of Marlborough, the flower 
of English valor. Never had New England seen 
upon her waters a fleet or an army so formidable. 
When joinecl by the colonial troops, they amounted 
to six thousand five hundred men — a force con- 
sidered at that day fully equal to the reduction of 
Quebec. t Their bright anticipations of conquest 
were blasted in a single night. No sooner had 
they entered the St. Lawrence, than the admiral 
obstinately refused to direct his course by the ad- 
vice of the pilots. He had proceeded but ten 
leagues up the river, when, on the night of the 

* F. Eelknap, p. 179 f W^ton. F. Belknap. 



Aua;ust 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 123 

twenty-third of August, the weather being thick, 
eight transports were wrecked upon an island, and 
a thousand men perished. Of the whole number 
only one was a New-Englander. The fleet put 
back, and with great difficulty beat down the St. 
Lawrence, and rendezvoused at the mouth of 
Spanish river. There the officers held a consul- 
tation, and ffiially resolved to abandon the enter- 
prise. 

The Indians took courage from these misfor- 1712. 
tunes, and fell upon Exeter, Dover, and Oyster 
River. Such w^as the posture of affairs, when, to 
the great joy of the inhabitants, the news of the 
peace of Utrecht arrived in America. As soon as oct.20. 
the Indians were informed of this, they came into 
Casco with a flag of truce, and desired to make a 
treaty. An unusual despondency was percepti- 
ble in their demeanor. Thoughtful of past misfor- 
tunes, they now saw that all further hostility 
would be useless, and asked for peace. A sus- Oct.29. 
pension of arms was proclaimed at Portsmouth, 
and, on the eleventh of July, the chiefs and depu- jjj^'^j 
ties of the several tribes solemnly ratified the treaty 
of peace. Most joyfully did the inhabitants leave 
the garrisoned houses, where they had suffered so 
much, to resume once more the peaceful pur- 
suits of industry. The fields again looked gay ' 
with the harvest — the wilderness and the solitary 
place began "to bud and blossom like the 
rose." 

Immediately after the peace, a ship was de- ^7^4 
spatched to (Quebec, to bring home the captives. 
The scene, on their arrival, is not to be described. 
Hundreds thronged the beach to meet them. 



124 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Mothers were eagerly searching through the crowd 

._^_;_ for their sons, and watching, with tremhhng sohci- 
tiide, each person that stepped upon the shore. 
Wives were there agitated with uncertain hopes, 
and fearing to interrogate the strange company of 
the ransomed ; for they were indeed strange. 
Some could only make signs of recognition. They 
stood locked in the embraces of their friends, and 
wept tears of joy in silence. They had forgotten 
their native language. Some came not. Captivity 
had not quenched the feelings. They had inter- 
married with the Indians, and refused the call that 
bade them return. They had grown out of the 
habits and the memory of home. A new love had 
been grafted, where the old had been broken. 
They preferred the hut of the wilderness to the 
home once so dear to them. 

During the war, Dudley, as governor, and Usher, ^ 
as lieutenant-governor, had administered the go- 
vernment, as faithful servants of the crown, and 
to the satisfaction of the people. Affairs in Eng- 
land had now changed, by the accession of George 
I. Many valuable officers, who had served the 
English government in the late wars, were wasting 

1715 away by the rust of peace. They must be provided 
for in America. Accordingly, George Vaughan 

1716. yyas made lieutenant-governor, and Samuel Shute 

Oct. 13. . . 

commander-in-chief of the province of New 
Hampshire. Dudley, expecting soon to be super- 
seded, went to pass the evening of his days in re- 
tirement, and left the helm of state in the hands of 
Vaughan. 

Vaughan's first act offended the people. It was 

* p. R., Journ. Council and Assembly, 1692—1716. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 125 

an attempt to establish a perpetual revenue to the chap. 
crown, by bringing into New England the land-tax .^_^ 
of Great Britain. The assembly declined to lay 
any imposts until the arrival of a governor. Shute, Oct. 17. 
however, soon came to the chair. lie abandoned 
the land-tax, but displaced six of the old counsel- 
lors, and filled their seats with six more, all of 
Portsmouth. This gave the trading interest a 
preponderance in the assembly. The yeomanry 
feared that the burdens of government would be 
laid wholly upon their shoulders. Disputes and 
bickerings* arose between the governor and the 
house of representatives, and between the governor 
and lieutenant-governor. The rash and precipi- 
tate, hasty and imperious temper which brought on 
the contest,! disqualified Vaughan for managing it 
with success. He disgusted the council and as- 
sembly, and did not conciliate the crown.| Ven- 1717. 
turing to disobey some of the instructions of ^^''^' 
Shute, he was complained of to the king, and 
superseded by John Wentworth. The same hand 
that penned the immortal soliloquy of Cato, and 
traced the finest harmonies of the Spectator, 
countersigned the conmiission of Wentworth. It 
was the hand of Addison. 

During the last, long, and distressing war with 
the Indians, the resources and improvement of the 
colony had been at a stand. But on the return of 
peace, Industry ventured once more to ply her 
busy hand, and the staple productions of the 
colony rose into view and became objects of at- 
tention. The royal navy needed masts, and, by 

* p. R., J. C. and A., 171G— 1728. House, 1711—1724. 

t F. Belknap, p. 187. ^ T' R; JC. and A.. 1715—1728. House, 1711— 1721. 




126 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, law, all pine trees of a certain diameter were re- 
served for the king. To encourage the colonists, 
and for the benefit of Great Britain, lumber Avas 
imported into England free of duty. In the east- 
ern waters the fisheries had been successful, and a 
considerable profit began to be derived from the 
manufacture of tar and turpentine from pitch-pine 
trees. A company of merchants soon attempted 
to monopolize the manufacture of these articles. 
But when many thousand trees had been prepared 
for use, they were destroyed by unseen hands. 
Thus did the fathers resist the first stride of the 
giant Monopoly. 

Something was done at this time towards the 
culture of hemp. But it was soon found that the 
people could till no more land than was requisite 
for raising corn, and they turned their attention at 
once to the means of subsistence. Their peaceful 
pursuits were soon to be interrupted. The eastern 

1717. Indians at this time discovered symptoms of un- 
easiness. With sullen discontent they saw the 
rapid progress of English settlements — the erec- 
tion of mill-dams and forts, and the increasing 
activity and power of the colonists. Governor 
Shute resolved upon an effort to produce recon- 
ciliation. Assembling their chiefs on an island in 
the Kennebec, he promised them trading-houses, 
supplies of arms, and smiths to keep their guns in 
repair. Their prejudices had been strongly ex- 
cited against the English. " Why are you so 
strongly attached to the French?"* demanded a 
stranger of an Indian sachem. " Because," re- 
plied the savage, " the French have taught us to 

* Whiton. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 127 

prav to God, Vviiich the Ensjlish never did." The chap. 
* " ° . , VI. 

Indians found encroachments daily made upon __ — 

their lands, and desired the English to fix a boun- 
dary, beyond which their settlements should not 
extend. This desire Governor Shute never com- 
plied with. Nor were the promised supplies ever 
furnished. 

While an Indian war hung in suspense over the ^„^g 
colonists, they received an important accession to -^"^"'^-^ 
their numbers. Early in 1719 came the Scottish Scottish 

»' enn- 

families, sixteen in number, to Londonderry, s^nts. 
Near the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
their ancestors had emigrated from Argylshire, in 
the vrest of Scotland, to the counties of London- 
derry and Antrim, in the north of Ireland.* There 
they trusted that their posterity might dwell, be- 
yond the reach of tyrants. But the hand of per- 
secution, which fell so h.eavily upon all Protestants 
during the reigns of Charles I. and James II., 
reached Ireland, and was laid upon the Scots. 
Tliere, while burdened with tithes and thirsting 
for a larger liberty, they heard that there was a 
delightful region in the New World, yet unmarred 
by the foot-print of an oppressor. Cheered by the 
most flattering hopes, one hundred and twenty 
families embarked for America. Their voyage 
was prosperous. They arrived, some at Boston, 
others at Portland, and there passed the autumn 
and winter. The next year 3I'Gregore, with six- 
teen families, selected for their residence London- 
derry ; and there he preached his first sermon, 
under the shade of a spreading oak. Large ac- 
cessions of their countrymen were soon added to 

* "VVhiton, p. GG. 



128 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the original company ; and in a few years the 
^^ church numbered two hundred and thirty mem- 
bers. They were Presbyterians. They Uved in 
that age of enthusiasm when the adherents of old 
and new creeds gloried in the name of martyrs, 
and dissenters demanded, (what they were seldom 
willing to grant,) unlimited freedom of religious 
opinion. These emigrants were proud to enjoy, 
and gloried in vjndicating, the Presbyterian faith. 
They were descended from men by whom that 
doctrine had been maintained with a spirit of in- 
dependence unequalled in any state in Europe, 
and hardly surpassed by the firmness and valor 
with which their more remote ancestors, unawed 
by the terror of the Roman name, defended their 
moors and marshes against the conquering arms of 
Agricola. 

It is not strange that they should have been 
ardently attached to their faith. They knew that 
it was Christianity that changed the savage man- 
ners of their remote ancestors, and brought to the 
depths of the morasses and woods the dignity and 
happiness of civilized social life. It was no won- 
der, then, that they should hold strong opinions. 
It was no wonder that they should worship, with 
fervent devotion, that Sun of Righteousness wliich 
had shed such a reviving light over the highlands 
and into all the glens of Caledonia. It is no won- 
der that they should deem it a sacred duty to serve 
the cause of Heaven by making the fiercest oppo- 
sition to what they deemed a false faith ; nor, 
when they had found what they esteemed true 
Christianity, that they should be willing to sacri- 
fice for it the last and best joys and possessions of 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 129 

man — even to forsaking their country and laying chap. 

down their lives. '^ 

Next to their piety, the most striking character- 
istic of the Scottish settlers was their national pride 
and high sense of honor. They held life in mean 
regard, compared with the slightest stain upon 
their honor. They felt the blood of the ancient 
Scots swelling their veins ; and though far removed 
from them by time, and far distant from home, ^ 
they still remembered Scotland, and cherished 
as household words the local names of Moray and 
Caithness, Galloway and Strath Clyde. It was 
natural for men to feel some pride of country, 
whose ancestors had been led to battle by such 
heroes as Wallace and Bruce. It was still more 
natural for those to feel it who had been taught 
that other generations of Scottish heroes had ren- 
dered memorable the fields of Harlow, Sterling, 
and Ancram-Moor. The earliest annals prove 
the Scots to have been a gallant people. The 
ancient Caledonians, preferring death to slavery, 
met the Romans in the forests of Lochleven and 
Loch Ore, and maintained their native indepen- 
dence, in spite of the universal conquerors ; com- 
pelling them to feel and acknowledge how great 
must be the patriotism and valor which move a 
people to defend such wild districts of mountain, 
moor, and marsh, against the victors of the world.. 
In process of time the descendants of the London- 
derry settlers spread over Windham, Chester, 
Litchfield, Manchester, Bedford, Goffstown, New 
Boston, Antrim, Peterborough, and Acworth, in 
New Hampshire, and Barnet, in Vermont. They 
were the first settlers of many towns in Massa- 
17 



130 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, chusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia. They are 
^^.^ now, to the number of more than twenty thousand,* 
scattered over all the states of the Union. But 
wherever located, and however situated, these 
ancestral recollections seem to have been cherish- 
ed by the posterity of the Scottish emigrants. To 
. this it is to be ascribed, in part at least, that 
Stark, Reid, M'Clary, M'Niel, and Miller, have 
^ displayed, in later days, much of the same pride 
and patriotism which swelled the dauntless hearts 
of Wallace and Bruce. Inheriting the same great 
traits of character, the American heroes of Scot- 
tish descent have made the achievements of Bunker 
Hill, Bennington, and Bridgewater, not unworthy 
to be associated in history with those of Flodden, 
Melrose, Dundalk, and Bannockburn. 

In the character of the Scots of Londonderry 
industry was another and a prominent trait. It is 
said of them that they were " a well-principled 
people; frugal, hardy, and industrious."! It is 
certain that they made rapid advances towards 
wealth and importance ; and that the excellence 
of their manufactures and the products of their 
industry procured for them an extensive demand. 
It is easy for the physiologist to discover, even 
now, in the countenances of the people of Derry, 
the same traits of character which led the ancient 
Scots to encounter such formidable odds, and 
cling with such tenacity to the defence of hills clad 
in perpetual snow, and wintry shores washed by 
the Northern Ocean. It is easy to see, in the 

* Whilon estimates the descendants of the Londonderry settlers at be- 
tween twenty and thirty thousand — p. 67. 
t Whiton, p. 66. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 131 

faces tliat assemble on a Sabbath day at Derry, chap. 
indications of the same deep feehng and high .^J^ 
resolve, which moved the Scots of olden time to , 

resist the fierce tyranny of the English church. 






CHAPTER VII. 



The Aurora Borealis seen for the first time in New England in 1721 — Inoc- 
ulation first used as an antidote to the small-pox — War with the Indians 
— The Jesuit missionaries — Father Rasle — his labors — his death and char- 
acter — War with the Indians — The family of Hanson — Captain Love- 
well — Last battle with the Indians at Lovewell's Pond — Defeat and death 
of Lovewell — Description of the battle-ground and the scenery in the 
valley of the Saco — Departure of the Penacooks — Boundary dispute — 
Settlement of Concord — Triennial act — Burnet — Belcher — Death of 
Wentworth — his character — Dunbar — Contest between the friends of the 
Union with Massachusetts and the advocates of a separate government — 
Boundary dispute — continues — decided in favor of New Hampshire — 
Banning Wentworth appointed governor — Sickness in New Hampshire 
— Intelligence — Morals — Schools — George Whitefield — comes to New 
Hampshire — his eloquence — his character. 

CHAP. The Aurora Borealis, the beauty of the north- 

VII. '' 



1721. 

Dec. 17. 



ern sky, which is now gazed upon with so much 
dehght, was seen for the first time in New Eng- 
land in 1721, and filled the inhabitants with alarm. 
Superstition beheld with terror its scarlet hues, 
and transformed its waving folds of light, moving 
like banners along the sky, into harbingers of com- 
ing judgment, and omens of impending havoc. 
Under its brilliant reflections, the snow, the trees, 
and every object, seemed to be dyed with blood, 
and glowed like fire. 

Shortly after the appearance of this beautiful 
and still mysterious phenomenon of the northern 
heavens, it was for the first time proposed in New 
England to make use of inoculation as an antidote 
to the small-pox. It had long been known as a 



I 



HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRB. 133 

remedy in Turkey, and was now introduced into chap. 
the colonies, under the auspices of Cotton Mather. _.^ 
It required all his influence to gain for it the coun- 
tenance of the clergy ; but the prejudices of the 
people were inflamed against it to such a degree, 
that when Dr. Boylston, who was the first indi- 
vidual to use it, offered to test its harmlessness or 
fatality by applying it to his own family, they 
raised a tumult and threatened his life. 

But the attention of the people was soon ab- 
sorbed by another and more fearful subject. The 
Indians were preparing for hostilities. The English 
must make ready for defence. In the long interval 
of peace, causes of war had been silently operating. 
The royal governors at the north did not strive, as 
did Oglethorpe and William Penn, to secure the 
attachment of the tribes by frankness and strict 
fidelity. The natives never regarded tlie northern 
governor as their father, nor did they confide in 
him, and appeal to him in every emergency of their 
internal disputes. Seldom or never did he enter 
the large square of the council place, or distribute 
presents to his " red friends," or drink with the P'fin- 
warriors "the sacred safkey," or smoke with the ni-. 

' '' ' 434-5. 

nations the pipe of peace. They gave them few 
presents, and purposely avoided explaining to them 
the terms of treaties and conveyances of land. If 
they did not openly break their engagements with 
them, they pursued towards them a selfish and un- 
scrupulous policy. They erected dams and mills, 
careless of the injury they did to the Indian fisheries. 
The Indians more than once complained that they 
were cheated in trade. Avarice often led the 
English to obtain deeds of land by deceit ; and 



134 * HISTORY OF 

CHAP, when the Indian had been tausht to get drunk, 

TT T r , . 

1, his best possessions coukl be taken from him in a 

fit of intoxication, without an equivalent. They 
did not foresee that the erection of forts and mills 
was to drive away their game and fish ; and it was 
not till they found their means of subsistence cut 
off, that they repented of their unguarded confidence, 
and sought to dispossess those whom they had 
welcomed as friends. When they found that agri- 
culture was destroying their interests, they deter- 
mined, as a measure of self-preservation, to drive 
awTcy the new settlers, and bring back the already 
half-reclaimed wilderness to its primitive state. 
Having no records, the memory of bargains was 
soon lost ; and then many of the land titles which 
they had given came to be of doubtful validity. 
The lands which had been sold on the banks of the 
St. George and Kennebec at an early period, the 
Indians had no memory of; and when the sales were 
proved to them, they declared that the sachems 
had exceeded their authority. 

From the first landing of the English, they 
treated the natives as subjects of the crown. They 
declared war against them as rebels, and in treaties 
they styled them British subjects. When they 
were conquered, they were compelled to acknow- 
ledge their submission to the English government. 
The French, on the contrary, did not declare the 
Indians to be subjects of France. They left to 
all the tribes their native independence. Although 
their traders often travelled and resided amongst 
the Indians, they seldom or never sought to obtain 
their lands. The French sent to them mission- 
aries, wlio gained access to their hearts, and in- 
spired them with reverence and love. 



I NEAV HA 51 PS II I RE. 135 

The Jesuits planted the cross at an early day chap. 
among the tribes of the Abcnaqiiis. But of the ,._,^ 
missionaries whom they sent there, no one endured 
or accomplished so much to christianize the In- 
dians as father Sebastian Rasle. In early youth 
he left the endearments of home and civilized life, 
plunged into the depths of wilds unexplored, and 
shared with the Indians the privations of the wil- 
derness. In the Indian village of Norridgewock, 
by a graceful curve of the Kennebec, on a beau- 
tiful prairie, stood his abode. All around lay a 
pathless wilderness. It was here that the mission- 
ary, then young, resolved to devote the remainder 
of his days to the spiritual services whereto he 
had been appointed. A church was erected, and 
supplied with those splendid decorations by which 
the Catholics seek to engage the imagination, and 
through that to reach the heart. Above the village 
stood one consecrated chapel, and below it another 
was erected, and bore on its walls the image of 
the holy virgin. By the assistance of women, the 
church was embellished with tasteful ornaments, 
and illumined by " brilliant lights from the wax 
of the bayberries, gathered from the islands of the Hist, 
sea." A bell was transported from Canada, 
through the wilderness, which, at morning and 
evening hour, called the hunters and warriors to 
prayer. Around tlie village the primeval forest 
yet stood in its grandear and glory. Islands, like 
gems, studded the clear expanse of the Kennebec, 
and a range of lofty mountains skirted the distant 
horizon. The matin song began to be chanted in 
these romantic solitudes, and with the unceasing 
music of the waterfall mingled the vesper hymn. 



136 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. The Indians were taught to sing and recite in their 

VH 

..^^.,,^ native tongue, and were charmed with the same 
ceremonies v>hich captivated the cultured minds 
of Fenelon and Cheverus. By the winning con- 
versation of Father Ilasle, and by the fervor and 
pathos of his preaching, the Indians were pro- 
foundly impressed with the truth of his religion, 
and 3^ielded almost implicit obedience to his will. 
He was master of all their languages, shared in 
their privations, and adopted the customs of the 
tribe. In times of scarcity he supplied them with 
food, secured their aiTections by his gentle deport- 
ment, and finally gained over them an ascendency 
superior to the influence of the native chiefs. 

When he had grown gray in poverty and absti- 
nence, he v»as suspected by the English of insti- 
gating the Indians to war ; and a party under Col. 

1721. Westbrook was sent to Norridgewock to seize 
him. But a courier had preceded them to give 
him notice of their approach, and he escaped into 
the woods. The government soon resolved upon 
another expedition to Norridgewock ; and accord- 

1724. ingly Captains Moulton and Harmon invested that 
fs!' village, each of them at the head of an Imndred 
men. When Father Rasle heard the tumult of 
their approach, he knew the danger to which him- 
self and his people were exposed. Nothing in- 
timidated,' he went forth, with fifty warriors, to 
meet the assailants, hoping to hold them in check 
till the women and children should have time to 
escape. As soon as he was discovered, a volley 
of musketry was directed towards him, and he fell 
dead at the foot of the cross which he had planted. 
The Indians mourned for him as for a chief and a 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 137 

father. He was buried near the place where his 
altar stood, and where he had so often celebrated 
the rites of his faith. More than a century after 
his death, gratitude and reverence reared an hum- 
ble monument to his memory on the spot where he 
fell. It was consecrated by Bishop Fenwick, with 
the solemn and imposing ceremonies of the Catlio- 
lic worship. No one could deny that it marked the 
spot where a good man was stricken down ; and 
when it was destroyed by the unseen hand of vio- 
lence, Charity could but mourn that enough of in- 
tolerant fanaticism should be found in the present 
enlightened age, to invade the precincts of :the 
dead, in order to trample upon a monument which 
the most savage conqueror would respect and 
spare. 

It was impossible for the Indians to overlook 
such an outrage upon their spiritual father, as that 
which was committed in the first attempt to seize 
Rasle. They regarded him v.'itli a reverence ap- 
proaching almost to worship. They determined 
to retaliate, and sought eagerly for revenge. The 
next summer they made an attack at Merry-meet- J'""^- 

. . . . . Junel3. 

ing-Bay, and carried captive nine families. At 
the fort of St. George's they were repulsed ; but 
destroyed Brunswick. This determined the gov- 
ernment upon hostilities, and accordingly a formal 
declaration of war was published at Boston and 
Portsmouth. Walton, Westbrook and Penhaliow 
led the New Hampshire forces. Thus, after an 
interval of ten years of peace, the colony was again 
involved in a war with the Indians. The enemy 
was expected on every part of the frontier, and 
again the people fled to their garrisoned houses. 
18 



138 HISTOJRY OF 

The growing unpopularity of Shute admonished 
him, at this time, to return to England, Although 
the people of New Hampshire were quiet under his 
administration, yet there was rising in Massachu- 
setts a violent and increasing opposition. Having 
been a soldier in his youth, and accustomed to 
military command and obedience, he was poorly 
prepared to brook the crosses and perplexities of 
politicrJ life. He did not possess that evenness of 
temper and calmness, Vvhich are so necessary for 

iTIa. ^^^6 management of difficult affairs. It was in the 
midst of an Indian war, when difficulties surrounded 
the government, that he left for England, and 
Lieutenant Governor Wentworth succeeded to the 
chair. It was resolved to prosecute the war vigor- 
ously. Wentworth, in the absence of Shute, took 
the field as commander-in-chief, and displayed 
the prudence and energy of an able leader. He 
was careful to supply the garrisons with stores and 
to visit them in person, to see that the duties of all 
were strictly performed. 

The Indians approached the settlements by way 

August of the Winnipiseogee. Their first appearance was 

at Dover ; their next at Lamprey River ; and they 

attacked, in quick succession, the settlements at 

May Oyster River, Kingston and Chester. A company 

jyiay marched to protect Oyster River, under the com- 

'^' mand of Abraham Benwick. At Dover some 

families of Quakers, scrupulously opposed to war, 

could not be persuaded to defend themselves. A 

party of French and Mohawks marked the family 

of John Hanson for their prey. They waited in 

ambush till the eldest daughter had gone and the 

two oldest sons. They then entered the house. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 139 

killed and scalped two of the small children, and chap. 
took prisoners Mrs. Hanson with her infant. The _.^ 
first person to discover this disa-^ter was the absent 
daughter ; wdio, on her return, seeing the two chil- 
dren dead at the door, gave a shriek of despair, 
which was heard at the same moment by her mo- 
ther in the hands of the enemy, and by her brothers 
in the meadow. The people were quickly alarmed, 
and went in pursuit ; but the Indians, avoiding all 
the travelled paths, bore off their captives beyond 
their reach. After this catastrophe, Mr. Hanson 
removed to the house of his brother ; who, though 1724. 
a duaker, accustomed his family to the use of arms, 
and defended himself. Thus do scruples of con- 
science sometim.es yield to the supreme necessity 
of self-preservation. 

The captive lady, though tender and delicate, 
possessed a vigorous mind, and bore the hardships 
of the march with surprising fortitude. On arriving 
in Canada, the prisoners were all sold to the 
French. With ceaseless effort the sad father 
gathered gold and silver for their ransom ; and 
when a sufficient sum had been accumulated, he 
traversed the woods to Canada, in search of his lost 
family. Long and hopelessly he sought for them 
through all the French settlements, and was about 
to abandon the search, when, by the benevolence 
of a French lady, he was directed to the house 
where they were kept as slaves. Overwhelmed 
with joy, he paid the ransom, and received his wife, 
the three younger children, and the nurse. It was 
impossible to obtain the eldest daughter, though 
he saw and conversed with her ; and he returned, 
leaving her in captivity. But he remained not long 



140 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, at home. The loss of his daughter continued to 
vn . . . . 

_..,-^ prey upon his mind, and it was impossible to solace 

1727. his grief. In a short time he set out to tread 
again his lonely path to Canada. But the troubles 
of his mind and the exposure and fatigues of the 
first journey, had undermined his health, and be- 
fore he reached Crown Point his strength failed 
him. Parental affection urged him on till the last 
sands of life had run, and seemed to grow stronger 
as his end drew near, until death extinguished life 
and love together, and the father was laid in a 
grave equally distant from his home and his 
daughter. 

1724. The enemy now ranged the whole extent of the 
Sept. 5. frontiers, plundering and laying waste ; and killing 
Sept. 7. several at Dunstable and Kingston. One after 

another, the Indian villages were visited ; but they 
were found deserted. The fate of Norridgewock 
was still fresh in their thoughts, and they could not 
be found in their former abodes. Scouting parties 
visited their principal villages, generally with little 
effect. But there was one of these parties, distin- 
guished at first by success, and afterwards no less 
distinguished by misfortune. Commanded by Cap- 
tain John Lovewell, they set out on their first 

1725. excursion, north of Lake Winnipiseogee, killed 
Feb. 20. QY,Q Indian and brought another home to Boston. 

This trifling good luck augmented his company to 
March scvcuty. Tcn Indian scalps were the trophies of the 
second excursion. Encouraged by repeated suc- 
cess, Lovewell marched a third time to attack the 
villages of the once formidable Pequawkets, on the 
upper branches of the Saco. The company, at this 
time, numbered forty-six, including a chaplain and 



9. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 141 

surgeon. Two of them afterwards returned ; an- 
other fell sick. Partly for the accommodation of 
the sick man, and partly for a place of retreat in i^nap.' 
case of disaster, they halted and built a stockade 
fort on the west side of Great Ossipee pond. Here 
they left the sick man with the surgeon and eight 
of the company for a guard. The number was 
thus reduced to thirty-four. They had not pro- 
ceeded far northward, when they came to a pond, 
on the margin of which they encamped for the 
night. Early the next morning, they heard the 
report of a gun, and saw a solitary Indian standing, 
more than a mile distant from them, on the point 
of a promontory projecting out into the water. 
Suspecting that he had been placed there to decoy 
them, and that a body of the enemy was in front, 
they held a consultation and determined to march 
forward, encompass the pond, and endeavor to gain 
the place where the Indian stood. That they 
might be ready for action, they laid aside their 
packs, containing all their provisions. It hap- 
pened tliat two parties of Indians, commanded by 
Paugus* and Wahwa, were returning from a scout 
down tlie Saco, to the lower village of the Pe- 
quawkets. Falling on Lovewell's track, they fol- 
lowed it till they came to the packs. By counting 
these they discovered at once the weakness of their 
enemy. The number of men was less than their 
own. They then placed themselves in ambush 
near the spot, and quietly waited the return of the 
men to their packs. The single Indian, who had 
stood on the point of land {)rojccting into the pond, 
the party of Lovewell killed and scalped. Seeing 

* Charles James Fox's account of Lovewell's fisht — MS. 



142 HISTORY OF 

no otiier enemy, they returned towards their packs, 
and while they were looking about for them, the 
Indians rose and rushed upon them with a horrid 
war-whoop. Captain Lovewell and eight men fell 
dead at the first fire ; Lieutenant Farwell and 
two others were wounded. By this time several 
of the Indians had fallen ; but being superior in 
number, they were able to keep up a brisk fire, 
which was as briskly returned. Perceiving that 
the Indians were endeavoring to surround them, 
they retreated a short distance, and chose a more 
advantageous position. 

Here they were partially sheltered by a point 
of rocks extending out into the pond, and by a few 
pine trees standing on the sandy beach. Here 
they made a stand. On their right was the mouth 
of a stream ; on their left the rocky point ; their 
front partly covered by a deep bog, partly exposed, 
and the pond in their rear. Thus they were 
hemmed in, and the enemy pressing upon them and 
galling them in front and flank. The fall of their 
commander and more than one quarter of their 
number, at the first onset, was disheartening. But 
they knew that their distance from the frontier cut 
ofi' all hope of safety by flight. Prudence as well 
as valor dictated a continuance of the engagement. 
They were now without a mouthful of sustenance. 
They had fought till past noonday, and their chap- 
lain and ensign Robbins were mortally wounded. 
Under these discouraging circumstances, the In- 
dians invited them to surrender, but they declined, 
and under the conduct of Lieut. Wyman, on 
whom the command had devolved, they kept up 
their fire. As night approached, the war-whoop 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 143 

grew fainter. The number of the Indians was chap. 

. . . , Vll 

greatly diminished; Paiigus was slain;* and ...,..-.1 

before sunset they retired, carrying with them 
their dead and wounded. Such was the fortune 
of this bloody ^ay. The field was left to the col- 
onists. The enemy, awed by their brave resistance 
and weakened by their own loss, thought it pru- 
dent to yield them the honor of the field. The 
shattered remnants of the brave company now as- 
sembled together, and found but nine of their 
number who had received no hurt. Of the wound- 
ed, eleven were able to march. To dispose of 
those who were unable to move was now the sad 
duty of the survivors. To remain with them 
would be certain destruction to all ; to remove them 
was impossible ; and yet to leave their dying com- 
panions behind, to fall into the hands of those who 
felt not pity, was little less than death to the gen- 
erous soldier. There seemed, however, to be no 
alternative, and, after struggling with their feelings, 
they tore themselves from the spot. Ensign Rob- 
bins desired them to lay his gun by him loaded, 
that before his death he might kill one more Indian. 
By the light of the rising moon they quitted the 
fatal field and directed their march to the stockade 
fort, \\ here they had left the sick man with a guard, 
on their way to Ossipee pond. To their surprise 
they found it deserted. In the beginning of the 
action one man had fled from the field, and had 
gone and told them of the defeat of the company. 
They now abandoned the fort and set out to return 
home. On their way, Lieut. Farwell and two 
others died of their wounds. One by one the sur- 

* Charles James Fox's account, in MS. 



144 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, vivors reached home, and were received with joy, 
vn 
>___ as men restored from the dead. A company 

from Dunstable, headed by Col. Tyng, went out 
to bury the bodies of Capt. Lovewell and his 
companions. They found twelve of them, and 
burying them, carved their names on the trees 
around the battle ground. The village of Fryeburg, 
in Maine, built in one of the most delightful valleys 
in America, stands near the sheet of water which 
has been made to commemorate this battle, by 
taking the name of Lovewell's Pond. The inhabi- 
tants are able to point out the spot where he fell. 
The pond is a beautiful sheet of water, three miles 
long. 

It is thought that the surrounding scenery has 
been changed but slightly, although more than a 
century has elapsed since the battle was fought. 
The inhabitants of the town suppose that they can 
designate the spot, now called Indian Point, near 
the mouth of a small stream, where stood "the 
decoy Indian." The waters are encircled by a 
wide sandy beach, which rises with a gentle slope, 
and is bordered with a growth of pines, which sur- 
round it like a belt. Loon island rises like a green 
spec, near the centre, and at a little distance from 
this is Pine island, crowned with trees. The Saco 
sweeps within twenty rods of the pond, as if com- 
ing to receive the waters, which flow into it through 
a narrow channel. The village of Fryeburg stands 
on a level plain, elevated a few feet above the broad 
intervals of the Saco. In the midst of this plain 
rises a single stupendous rock, two hundred feet 
high ; its top capped with small pines, its sides 
clad in dark brown moss. When standing under its 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 145 

overhanging cliffs, man appears to be an insignifi- chap. 
cant object. It rises like an observatory in the ...^^^ 
midst of the unrivalled charms of a landscape, over 
which the eye ranges for miles. From the south 
comes the Saco, flowing in graceful meandcrings, 
its banks frmged with the various trees that adorn 
the meadows, and loses itself at last towards the 
north, amidst the hills which range themselves on 
either side. Northward are the Pequawket moun- 
tains, and westward is Cliocorua peak, the monarch 
of the Sandwich range ; altogether, forming a semi- 
circular group of mountains of surpassing grandeur. 
Anciently, within this town, scarcely six miles in 
extent, the winding course of the Saco measured 
thirty-four miles in length. The frightful freshets 
of the river often compelled the inhabitants to re- 
treat, with their flocks and herds, to the highlands. 
They have now, by a canal running across the nar- 
rowest neck of land, led the river from its bed and 
dried it up for a distance of thirty miles. In early 
times the Pequawket Indians could float with their 
canoes, by making the circuit of Lovewell's pond 
near the shores, and passing through its outlet into 
the Saco, for more than a hundred miles, all with- 
in the town of Fryeburg. The features of this 
valley are hardly equalled in New England. From 
an observatory, raised by the hand of nature in its 
midst, the eye of the beholder ranges from Love- 
well's pond on the southeast, eastward over an 
almost unbroken forest, until the view is bounded 
by Pleasant mountain. He sees, almost at a 
glance, the silver thread of the Saco winding in 
the distance — the bright waters of the pond, and 
the plains and meadows — the clouds resting on the 
19 



146 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, summits of the mountains, or hanging wreathed 
___L around their rugged sides, sometimes ilhimined by 
the sun's rays hke fluid gold, sometimes kindling 
with the first fires of morning. Never did nobler 
mountains fling their broad shadows, at sunset, over 
more beautiful plains and meadows than those which 
surround the village of Fryeburg. Nor is it the 
least interesting of the traveller's reflections, while 
gazing here, that he treads upon the favorite hunt- 
ing-grounds of the once formidable Pequawkets. 

The battle with Lovewell was the last expiring 
effort of the Indians in New Hampshire. They 
never took the field again. They seemed to be 
aware of their destiny. The prophecy of their 
great father, Passaconaway, made more than a 
century before, had been fulfilled.* The pale 
faces were indeed tenants of all the pleasant places 
ef their fathers. Copying the vices without the 
virtues of the white man, the Indian gained from 
civilization no advantages equal to the ills he suf- 
fered ; and while impelled by instinct to self- 
defence every effort which he made did but accel- 
erate his doom. 

The battle of Lovewell's pond was the most ob- 
stinate and destructive encounter in the war. 
Commissioners were now despatched, on the part 
of New England, to Vaudruil^ governor of Canada, 
1725. to complain of the countenance he had ffiven to the 

Jan. 20. . , 

Indians. This procured the ransom of some cap- 
tives, and exerted an influence favorable to peace. 
After a few months, a treaty was ratified at Fal- 
Q^^ j5 mouth.f Never were the people of New Hamp- 
shire so well trained to war as at this period. 

* Seepage — . f Prov. Rcc, Jour. House, 1724—1743. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 147 

Ranging parties constantly traversed the woods, cHAr. 
as far north as the White Mountains. Every man ,_,^ 
of forty years had seen twenty years of war. They 
had been taught to handle arms from the cradle, 
and, by long practice, had become expert marks- 
men. They were hardy and intrepid, and knew 
the lurking-places of the foe. Accustomed to fa- 
tigue and familiar with danger, they bore with com- 
posure the greatest privations, and surmounted 
with alacrity the most formidable difficulties. 

The Penacooks* had now gone from Concord 
and from all the valley of the Merrimack. Some of 1727. 
them, more warlike than the others, had gone to 
the Abenaquis. The residue of them emigrated to 
the confines of Canada, and mingled with the tribes 
of the St. Francis. All obstacles being removed, 
and there being no vicinity of hostile neighbors, 
the settlement of Concord v/as commenced in 
1727 ;f the same year that was distinguished by oct.29. 
the second great earthquake which had shaken New 
England. J Not long after, scattering settlers plant- 
ed themselves along the Merrimack, from Dun- 
stable to Boscawen, and sometime afterwards, at 
HoUis, Amherst, Winchester, Keene and Swansey. 
Of the emigrants on the Merrimack and its western 
tributaries, the greater part were from Massachu- 
setts. Another class was at the same time added 
to the population. They came from Connecticut, 
and planted themselves on the cast bank of Con- 
necticut river. For years these different classes 
of settlers exhibited characteristics so peculiar as 
to be distinguished from each other like four na- 

* Farmer's note on the Penacook Indians. N. H. Hist. Coll., I., p. 218. 
t N. IT. Hist. Coll., I., 158. t N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., p. 92. 



148 HISTORY OF 

tions ; and time has not wholly obliterated the pe- 
culiarities which once so strikingly distinguished 
from each other the inhabitants of the Pascataqua, 
Londonderry, Merrimack and Connecticut River 
settlements. 

While the cloud of war overhung the colonies, 
1726. ^^^® boundary dispute had slept in silence. The 
return of peace brought with it leisure, and the 
contest revived afresh. Massachusetts asserted her 
charter claim to all the lands lying beyond a certain 
line. This line began at a point three miles north 
tm^rl. ^^ ^^^^ mouth of the Merrimack. From thence it 
^kn?p! **^" west and north, at the same distance of three 
x'^P- miles from the river to a point in the present town- 
ship of Sanbornton — three miles beyond the paral- 
lel of the junction of the Winnipiseogee and the 
Pemigevvasset — thence due west to the Connecti- 
cut. This claim covered the whole of the county 
of Cheshire and the greater part of Hillsboro' 
Merrimack and Sullivan. Aware that their claim 
to jurisdiction might be overruled by the king, 
Massachusetts was desirous to acquire in these 
lands the right of property. To further this object, 
Massachusetts proposed the appointment of com- 
missioners to establish the line. The New Hamp- 
shire assembly refused to concur,* alleging that 
they had already submitted the case to the king. 
Both parties waxed warm in the dispute ; a sur- 
vey was ordered, and each state strove to plant 
settlements within the confines of this disputed ter- 
ritory. Every pretence was sought, and every en- 
couragement given to entitle persons to become 

* Prov. Rec, Jour. House, 1721—1743. Jour. Council and Assembly 
1716—1728. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 14»9 

grantees of tlie lands. A claim was soon discover- 
ed, founded in feelings of gratitude to the country's 
defenders. The descendants of those who had 
fought in the wars of the preceding century were 
yet unrewarded. Nine townships were readily 
granted by Massachusetts to the heirs of these sol- 
diers. Those nine were called the Canada town- 
ships, and six of them were within the space 
claimed by New Hampshire. To the survivors of 
brave Lovewell's defeat, and to the descendants 
of those who fell, a select tract was granted at 
Suncook. New Hampshire, also, granted the 
townships of Epsom, Chichester, Barnstead, Can- Mayi's 
terbury, Gilmanton and Bow. None of these were ~ 
within the disputed tract, except Bow ; which in- 
terfered with grants already made by Massachu- 
setts in Suncook and Penacook. This brought 
the parties directly into a contest ; for it was a 
practical assertion, on the part of New Hampshire, 
of her claim to the territory in dispute. A litiga- 
tion arose, which survived through the changes of 
forty years. 

The deserted homes of the peaceful Penacooks 
now invited the current of emigration to the banks 
of the Merrimack, and a settlement was commenced 

in 1727. In 1733 it was called Rumford,* and 1727. 

1 700 

did not take the name of Concord till 17G5. Al- 
lured by the level and pleasant lands on this river, 
settlers planted themselves along its whole course, 
and all along its western tributaries. They fol- 
lowed up the Ashuelot, and planted themselves at 
Keene, in one of the most beautiful vales in New 
England. These settlers were from Massachu- 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., I., p. 153— Ibid. 218. 



1727. 



150 HISTORY OF 

setts, and were distinctly marked as the third 
division of the inhabitants of New Hampshire. 
They exhibited pecuharities, intellectual, moral, 
social and political. The Connecticut, Pascata- 
qua, and Londonderry divisions have all likewise 
been distinguished by peculiar traits of character ; 
and long continued to display, in their manners, 
customs and modes of thinking, the peculiar char- 
acteristics of former generations. The settlers car- 
ried with them, into their new abodes, the habits, 
feelings and principles deeply impressed on their 
minds, when young, which long continued to dis- 
play their peculiar influences on their descendants. 
Thus these settlers continued to exhibit almost the 
national peculiarities of four distinct nations. 
During the absorbing excitement of the boundary 
contest, little progress was made in the improve- 
ment and settlement of the country. Projects for 
colonies were continually formed — meetings of 
proprietors were held, and an avaricious spirit of 
speculation in landed property prevailed every 
where ; but the best lands remained uncultivated 
and the real wealth of the country was diminished. 
Its improvement was retarded. But in the midst 
Nov. of these speculations and schemes of settlement, 
the death of King George I. dissolved the assem- 
bly, and writs were issued for the election of a new 
one, in the name of George the second. This as- 
sembly had subsisted for five years, which had 
been deemed a grievance. By so long a con- 
tinuance in office, tlie representatives became too 
independent of the people. Basking so long in 
the rays of royal favor, they became alienated 
from their constituents, and corrupted by long inti 



21 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 151 

macy with a royal governor and his council, and chap. 
popular opinion lost its just weight in government. ,^,.,-1., 
The death of the king furnished a fit occasion, 
and the democratic principle, which quickens the 
natural progress of power from the few hands to 
the many, now manifested itself in a general desire 
expressed by the people to limit the duration of 
assemblies. Immediately after the organization of 
the new assembly, a move was made for a trien- 
nial act.* The lieutenant governor, Wentworth, 
favored the proposal, and both houses agreed in 
framing an act by which the^present assembly was 
limited to three years, unless sooner dissolved by 
the governor. This act afibrded additional se- 
curity to the rights of the people, and was hailed 
as a popular triumph. Having taken the first step, 
the house were disposed to proceed to other alter- 
ations and reforms. They had already resolved 
upon remodelling the courts. 

But the council resisted. A contest arose be- 1727. 
tween the two branches, which Wentworth sudden- 
ly terminated, by dissolving the assembly ;f an act 
which embittered the people against him and his 
administration. Most of the old assembly were 
re-elected, and the same speaker, Nathaniel Weare, 1728. 
was again chosen. Wentworth, however, nega- 
tived tlie choice, thus assuming the power of a 
royal governor. After several days' suspension of 
business, the house reluctantly chose another 
speaker. The public business now proceeded 
with ill humor. Tiie chair and the house assumed 
hostile attitudes. Continual reproaches passed 

*Prov. PiCC, Jour. Council and Assembly, 1716 — 1728. Jour. House, 172-1 
—1743. t P- R-; J- H. and A. 1717—1728. J. H. 1721—1713. 



152 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, between them, and the house carried their oppo- 

;_ sition so far as to resolve upon petitioning the king 

to annex the province to Massachusetts. But in the 
midst of this controversy, William Burnet, son of 
the famous Bishop of Sarum, arrived at Boston, 
commissioned as governor of Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire. He was an elegant scholar, and 
an enemy to ostentation and parade. He had been 
governor of New York and New Jersey. His 
fame had reached New England, and the people 
had formed high anticipations of favor and benefit 

1730. from his appointment. Shortly after his arrival at 
Portsmouth he died of a violent fever, and was 
succeeded by Jonathan Belcher,* a man of a char- 
acter widely different from his predecessor. He 
was a merchant, of an ample fortune, had passed 
six years in Europe, and had been twice at the 
Bel- court of Hanover, before the Protestant succession 

p. 224. in the house of Brunswick. In his person he was 
graceful ; his manners elegant and polite, and of 
a lofty and aspiring disposition. He was frank 
and sincere, a generous friend, a vindictive, but not 
implacable, enemy ; proud of his office, and fond 

1730. of splendor. When he found the emoluments of 
his office inadequate to support the luxuries in 
which he chose to live, he determined to support the 
dignity of his station at the expense of his private 

Def?2 ^*^i'^u*^6- Shortly after his appointment, occurred 
the death of Lieutenant Governor Wentworth. 
Until the unfortunate controversy between liim and 
the assembly, near the close of his administration, 
he had possessed the confidence of the people, and 
he carried with him their respect to the grave. 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., p. 97. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 153 

Wisdom and moderation marked the whole of his chap. 

VH. 

public career. For nearly thirteen years he had .^-.-1^ 
conducted the affairs of the province, through the 
perplexities of high party excitement and the diffi- 
culties of an Indian war. In every station he 
secured the general confidence and esteem. In 
his youth he had followed the seas. From being 
the commander of a ship, he became a merchant. 
He was charitable to the poor, courteous and affa- 
ble. As a merchant, he sustained the reputation 
of a fair and generous dealer. As a citizen, he 
was distinguished for his integrity, benevolence, 
and public spirit. At his death, David Dunbar, a 
native of Ireland, and a reduced colonel in the June 24. 
British service, succeeded him in the lieutenancy. 
No sooner did Dunbar arrive in New Hamp- 
shire, than he joined the party opposed to Govern- 
or Belcher.* To tlie exertions of this party New 
Hampshire is indebted for a large extent of terri- 
tory. Had it never sprung into existence, the 
boundary line would have been yielded to Massa- 
chusetts ; and New Hampshire, curtailed in terri- 
tory and without a separate governor, would have 
finally been annexed, as a mere appendage, to her 
more wealthy and flourishing neighbor. The rise 
of this party began before the death of Wenlworth, 
and received a powerful accession of numbers from 
his influence. After the death of Burnet, it was 
uncertain whether Belcher would be appointed, or 
whether Governor Shutc, who had been long 
absent, would return and resume the chair. Went- 
worlh wrote letters of compliment to both. Bel- 
ciici" was not apprized of the letter to Shute until 

* Prov. Eec, Jour. House. 1721—1713. 

20 



Rol- 

iiap.p. 

224. 



154 HISTOPwY OF 

CHAP, after his arrival in America. He was then inform- 
_^__ ed that Shute had received a letter from the lieu- 
tenant-governor, of the same tenor as his own. 
This was deemed an act of duplicity, and excited 
his displeasure. He withdrew all civilities from 
Wentworth ; and having control over the emolu- 
ments of his office, he cut down his salary to the 
smallest possible limits. At this, Wentworth's 
friends were disappointed and disgusted. He did 
not long survive. But his son, Benning Went- 
worth, and his son-in-law, Theodore Atkinson, 
resented the affi'ont, and having turned all their 
influence against Belcher, they became leaders of 
the opposition. Dunbar seconded their enmity 
with great zeal, and the current of popular feeling 
began to set strongly in their favor. The positions 
and views of the two parties at this time may be 
distinctly seen. Belcher and his friends had pro- 
jected the union of New Hampshire with Massa- 
chusetts. To effect this, it was necessary to 
induce the people unanimously to petition the 
crown. This project was unpopular, and was 
found to be impracticable. They therefore kept 
their plan out of sight, and awaited a favorable 
opportunity to accomplish it. 

On the other hand, the opposition warmly advo- 
cated the continuance of a separate government, 
and demanded a distinct governor, who should 
reside in the province. The greatest obstacle to 
this was the poverty and smallness of the province. 
The population of New Hampshire, at this time, 
numbered not above ten thousand ; three or four 
thousand of whom resided within the territory 
claimed by Massachusetts. There were little 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 165 

more than nineteen hundred dweHing-houses, and chap. 
the amount of shipping did not exceed five hundred .^^.^..^ 
tons. The number of seamen was but forty. The 
exports were small, and consisted chiefly of fish and wiu 
lumber. The customs and excise brought only a p ^s. 
revenue of four hundred pounds, while the annual 
expenses of government rose to over fifteen hun- 
dred pounds ; and the deficiency was supplied by 
a tax. In this state of things, the opposition saw 
the necessity of enlarging the territory and fixing 
its limits. 

They easily persuaded the people that great 
advantages would flow to them from establishing 
the line — that the expenses of it would be but tri- 
fling and that the lands, when once acquired, 
would be granted to them and their children. 
Both parties had become greatly embittered m 
their animosities, and the spirit of intrigue marks 
the whole course of their negotiations.* The 
governor and his party found strong aid in the 
powerful neighbor at their side, who, covetous of 
territory, was no idle spectator of the contest. 
Massachusetts stoutly asserted her chartered 
claims, and affected to look with contempt on the 
ambitious plans of the small province which she 
had once governed. On the other hand. New 
Hampshire, aspiring to the rank of an independent 
state, contested boldly every inch of ground with 
her proud rival, and when baffled in her efforts, made 
interest with the servants of the crown and sought 
refuge in royal favor. Such was the state of par- 
ties, when, in the autumn of 1731, a committee of 1731, 
both provinces met at Newbury, to settle this pro- ^2u' 

* Prov. Rec, Joar. House, 1724—1743. 



156 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, tracted ciispvite. The influence of Massachusetts 

L prevented an accommodation, and this proved to 

he a fruitless conference. The representatives of 
New Hampshire now determined to treat no long- 
er with Massachusetts ; but represent the matter 
to the king, and petition the crown to decide the 
controversy. Accordingly, v/ithout the concur- 
rence of the council,* they commissioned John 
Rindge, a merchant of Portsmouth, to present 
their petition to the king. On its reception, it 
was referred to the lords of trade, and Rindge, on 

1732, his departure from London, left his business in the 
hands of John Tomlinson, of London, and Mr. 
Parris, the solicitor. These shrewd and persever- 
ing men supported the petition of New Hampshire 
with great ability and success. In due time they 
obtained a royal order referring the question to a 
board of commissioners, to be selected from the 

,-,0^ councilors of the neighboring province. Li Au- 
Aug. gust, 1737, this board convened at Hampton, and 
simultaneously with them the assemblies of the 
tvv'o contending provinces met in the same neigh- 
borhood ; that of Massachusetts at Salisbury, and 
that of New Hampshire at Hampton Falls. Thus 
arrayed, each jealous of the other, v/atcliing to 
circumvent, and eager to catch at the most trivial 
mistake, the parties, with their commissioners, 
entered upon the difficult business before them. 
Massachusetts contended for a line to be drawn 

whiton, three miles from the left bank of the Merrimack, up 

p. 81. , . ' * 

to the confluence of its two main branches, and 
asserted her right to all the lands south and west 
of this limit. She also contended that the eastern 

* Prov. Rec, Jour. House; 1724—1743. 



NEW HxV 31 PS II I RE. 157 

boundary of New Hampshire should be a line drawn chap 
from the mouth of the Pascataqua to the source of — -!_ 
the Salmon Falls branch, and from thence doe ^vhuon, 
north-west. This would have cut off small por- 
tions of Grafton, and almost the \vhole of Coos 
county. On the other hand, New Hampshire 
claimed for her southern boundary a line drawn due 
west from a point three miles north of the mouth p. si.' 
of the Merrimac ; and for her eastern, a line pass- 
ing up the Pascataqua, to the source of Salmon 
Falls river, and thence north one or two degrees 
west. After a long and angry discussion between 
the parties, the commissioners fixed upon the present 
eastern boundary. The southern they were una- 
ble to determine. An appeal to the king was the 
only mode of adjustment. Tired of the contro- 
versy, both parties finally agreed to submit the 
whole subject to the royal decision.* Three years 
afterwards, George II. terminated the dispute in 
favor of New Hampshire. In regard to the east- 
ern boundary, he confirmed the judgment of the 
commissioners. His decision upon the southern 
line was not anticipated by either party. He 
substituted the present line for one running due 
west from a point three miles north of the mouth 
of the Merrimac ; thus giving New Hampsliirc a 
territory of fifty miles in length, by fourteen in 
breadth, more than she had claimed. 

This enlargement of territory, population and 
wealth gave to New Hampshire a new political 
importance ; and it was determined in England to 
gratify her wishes as to a separate government. 
Accordingly, Benning Wcntworth, the favorite of 

* Prov. Rcc, Jour. House, 1721—1713. 



158 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the people, and the warmest opponent of Belcher, 

. -i^ received the appointment of governor and com- 

• mander-in-chief of New Hampshire. After a long 
absence, he had at length returned to Ports- 
mouth in triumph, invested with the honors of his 
office. 

While this controversy was pending, the advance 
of New Hampshire in wealth and importance had 
been slow. A severe check had been given to her 
population, in 1735, by a malignant throat distem- 
per, which spread from Maine to Carolina. In 
New Hampshire alone more than a thousand per- 
sons, mostly children, fell victims to its ravages. 
But the intelligence and morals of the colony were 
in advance of her wealth. Schools had been well 
established and sustained.* No public execution 
had ever taken place since the first settlement, a 
period of one hundred and twenty years. Freed 
from the grasping claims of Massachusetts, pos- 
sessing solid resources, her boundaries enlarged 
and established, and with a separate government 
of her own, she started afresh in her career, and 
gave evidence of a capacity for improvement 
hitherto unknown even to herself. The popula- 
tion of New Hampshire at this period began to 
increase rapidly from emigration ; for there were 
in England many who "rather chose to spend 
ms^of themselves in seeking a new world, than servilely 
p. 3?' to be hired as slaughterers in the quarrels of 

strangers." 
1744, An unusual religious excitement brought to 
America, at this period, one of the most remark- 
able men of the age. With the exception of 

t Rev. N. Bouton's Address. N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., p. 5. 



NEW HA^IPSIIIRE. 159 

Patrick Henry, it may be safely said that no voice chap 

was ever heard on the western continent so elo- .^ J^ 

quent as that of George Whitefiekl ; nor is there 
a name so sacredly embalmed in the religious 
remembrances of the American people. He was 
of humble origin, and there is no genealogy of his 
family relations to swell the bidk of history. In 
his youth he discovered a predilection for the 
stage, and acted some plays at school. Yet a 
graceful delivery was so natural to him that he 
may be said to have imparted it to the stage 
rather than to have borrowed it there.* Like 
many of the great orators of ancient and modern 
times, he has left few memorials of his genius and 
excellence behind him. Yet it would be impossible 
to write the annals of eloquence and not insert the 
name of him who was regarded as the great model 
of excellence in his time. The lightning flashes 
of his eloquence were never written, and never 
could be reported. His printed sermons discover 
but faint traces of that masterly power which held 
multitudes fast bound, as by an almost supernat- 
ural spell. The free and hearty appeal, which 
stirs and enchants the multitude, if ever so cor- 
rectly transcribed, will leave on the mind, of the 
reader a feeling of disappointment. Such were 
the sermons of Whitefiekl. They were made up 
principally of those extempore effusions and bursts 
of passion, caught from the transient impulse of 
present feeling, or inspired by the presence of a 
vast assembly, which lose much of their force 
when the man and the occasion disappear. He 
was indifferent to worldly gain, and sought to 

* Memoirs of Whiteficld, p. 11. 



]Q0 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, build an orphan asylum, as the best legacy he 

]}}^ could leave to the world. 

Gifted with a daring fancy, full of pathos and 
enthusiasm, he dealt familiarly with all the pas- 
sions of the human heart, and moved his hearers, 
at vvill, with every emotion of which human nature 
is susceptible. If he melted them to tears, it was 
only tliat he might pour upon them a flash of joy, 
and make it still brighter by the contrast, when he 
unveiled the face of a merciful Savior, and pointed 
them to the mansions of eternal purity and bliss. 
Whitciield preached many times in New Hamp- 
shire and in Massachusetts. So charmed were 
the people by his eloquence, that they shut up 
their shops,* forgot their secular pursuits, and laid 
aside their schemes for the world. Crowds fol- 
lowed him from place to place, and the oftener he 
preached, the more eager were they to hear him 
again. Nor is it at all to the disparagement of 
this eloquent and truly wonderful man, that he 
was opposed and vilified by the professors of 
Harvard College. While they are forgotten, and 
while the names even of the brightest of his cotem- 
poraries have passed away, like the transitory 
meteors of a lower sky, the fame of Whitefield 
shines from the upper heavens with a fixed and 
unalterable glory. 

* Memoirs of Whitefield, p. 252. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Expedition to Cape Breton — William Pepperell — Siege and fall of Louis- 
burg — Vaughan — "War with the Indians — Settlement with the Masonian 
proprietors — Defence of Number-Four by Capt. Stevens — Contest con- 
cerning the Vermont lands — Stark — France resolves to connect Can- 
ada with Louisiana — Union of the colonies for defence — Congress of 
delegates meet at Albanj' — Campaign of 1755 — Defeat of Braddock — 
Washington — The Rangers — Expedition to Crown Point — Massacre at 
Fort AVilIiam Henry— Montcalm — Pitt — Attack upon the fortress of Ti- 
conderoga — The English repulsed— Quebec — Expedition against the St. 
Francis Imhans— Destruction of their village— Disasters of the Rangers — 
Conquest of Canada completed — The Rangers — Unsuccessful attempt of 
the Indians to exterminate the English— N. H. Gazette— Progress of set- 
tlement — Contest betAveen New York and New Hampshire for the lands 
of Vermont — The Revolution dawning. 

Fifteen leagues from Cape Ray, the south- chap. 
western extremity of Newfoundland, lies the cold ..^.^^ 
and rocky island of Cape Breton. Wrapped in a ^^'*'*- 
perpetual fog, which is impervious to the sun's 
rays, summer brings no vegetation to perfection 
on its sterile shores. It is visited by the long and 
fierce winters which reign between the forty-fifth 
and forty-seventh degrees of north latitude. The 
face of the isle is either rough and mountain 
ous or sinks into wet bogs. On the north and 
west sides it is steep and inaccessible, sometimes 
rising into mountains. On the south-eastern side 
it is level, and indented with fine bays and noble 
harbors. It invites no tiller to the soil. Its only 
productions are pitcoal and plaster. Fields of 
floating ice environ its shores long after spring 
21 



162 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, reigns triumphant over all the neighboring lands. 

J^ It acquired its name from the hardy mariners of 
Brittany, and Normandy, "from their remembrance 
of home."* It has no good fishing stations, and 
derives all its importance from its central position 
and the convenience of its ports. 

By the treaty of Utrecht, England had ceded 
this barren isle to France ; and received from the 
French crown the neighboring possessions of Nova 
Scotia and Newfoundland. On a neck of land, 
south of one of the finest harbors on the island, 
the French had built the city of Louisburg, two 
miles and a quarter in circumference, surrounded 
by a wall of stone thirty-six feet high, and a ditch 
eighty feet wide. The entrance to the town by 
land was at the west gate, over a draw-bridge, 
defended by a circular battery mounting sixteen 
guns. 

Within this strong; enclosure the tov.n w^as 
regularly laid out in squares ; the streets were 
broad, the houses of wood or stone. On a high 
cliff, opposite the battery, stood the lighthouse ; 
a spacious citadel arose on the west side ; and 
under the ramparts were casements to receive 
the women and children in case of a siege. A 
space of about two hundred yards on the side next 
the sea was enclosed by a simple dike and a line 
of pickets. The side fire from the bastions swept 
this space, and secured it from attack. There 
were six bastions, and three batteries, containing 
embrasures for one hundred and forty-eight can- 
non. 

By the labors of twenty-five years, these mag- 

• Bancroft, Vol. I., p. 15. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 163 

nificent works had been constructed ; and they chap 

had cost the crown not less than thirty miUions of L 

livres. In peace, the fine harbors on the south- 
eastern side formed a safe retreat for the ships of 
France, on their homeward course from the West 
Indies ; in war, they could harbor a swarm of 
privateers, to ruin the English fisheries and inter- 
rupt her coasting trade. 

France was at this time warmly attached to the 
interests of Spain, by the tie of relationship 
betAveen the royal families. Ever since the flame 
of war had been kindled between Britain and 
Spain, it had been expected that France would be 
involved in the quarrel, and it was foreseen by all, 
that when war should break out between France 
and England, their American colonies would be 
the scene of hostilities. These anticipations were 
realized by a declaration of war on the part of 1744. 
England against France, in 1744. Duquesnel, 
the French governor of Louisburg, who had 
received intelligence of this before it reached New 
England, immediately led a body of French and 
surprised the little English garrison at Canseau. 
He destroyed the fishery, the fort, and the other 1744. 
buildings ; and after menacing the English posts 
in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, returned with 
sixty prisoners of war to liOuisburg. croft, 

This early disaster drew the attention of the 457.' 
colonists to the importance of Louisburg, and 
inspired a strong wish for its reduction. The °^ 
prisoners of Canseau, after passing the summer in 
captivity, were sent to Boston on parole. From 
them Governor Shirley obtained an accurate ac- 
count of that fortress, and, with his characteristic 




164 HISTORY OF 

energy and decision, resolved at once upon an 
enterprise against it. The fishermen of Marble- 
head, interrupted in their pursuits, " disdained an 
idle summer, and entered readily into the design." 
Massachusetts, by a majority of one vote in her 
legislature, resolved upon the expedition, and 
poured forth a force of three thousand volunteers. 
New Hampshire raised a detachment of five hun- 
dred,* bearing upon their banners the pious motto 
of Whitefield, " Nil desperandum Christo 
DUCE."t Connecticut sent five hundred and 
^ec.' sixteen men, and three hundred sailed from Rhode 
Houle, Island too late to share the glory of the enterprise. 
^mrT Nor did the generous supply of provisions sent by 
Couri. Pennsylvania arrive till after the surrender of the 
Assem. city. The cannon contributed by New York, 
1750? more fortunate in their destination, came safely 
and seasonably to their hands. 

The merit of originating this expedition is sup- 
Dmi- posed by many to belong to Wilham Vaughan, of 
ufsl Portsmouth. He had learned from fishermen the 
York, strenajth and situation of the place, and conceived 

V 1 T 

P°3ji.' the design of taking the city by surprise. He was 
in Boston when the final vote was taken in the 
legislature of Massachusetts. On the passage of 
the resolution, circular letters were immediately 
despatched to all the colonies. With one of these 

* Bancroft estimates the number at three hundred and four; but it is not 
to be forgotten that one Imndred and fifty from New Hampshire had previ- 
ously joined one of the Blassachusetts regiments, and forty-six more manned 
one of the armed sloops wliich served as a cruiser. This accession of New 
Hampshire men swelled the Massachusetts force to upwards of three thou- 
sand one hundred; but I have chosen to put down the number actually 
raised in each state, giving to Massachusetts about three thousand, and to 
New Hampshire the number actually raised, which was five hundred, one 
eighth of the land forces. 

f Nothing is to be despaired of, Christ being the leader. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 165 

Vaughan rode express to Portsmouth. The as- 
sembly was in session when his errand was an- 
nounced. The house of representatives caught 
the enthusiasm of Vaughan, and desired an imme- 
diate conference of the two houses. It was im- 
mediately held, and the proposition of Governor 
Shirley instantly agreed to ; and almost in a day a 
committee was raised — their report made, favora- 
ble to the expedition — a proclamation issued for 
enlisting men, and for providing military stores 
and transports. Such, at that day, was the en- 
thusiasm of New England men. Nothing checked 
the rush of legislators and people but the emission 
of bills of credit ; a measure made indispensable 
by the poverty of the exchequer. This was con- 
trary to the letter of royal instructions. But, by 
the united ingenuity of Shirley and Wentworth, a 
way was devised to surmount this obstacle, and 
the governor consented to a bill for the emission 
of ten thousand pounds. Feb.i3. 

The most important arrangements being thus 
made by the united colonies, it now remained to 
appoint a commander-in-chief There was not a 
man in New England qualified, by professional 
skill and experience, to take the command. But 
there were many possessing fidelity, courage, and 
popularity, the best substitute for military talents, 
and even ivith them, a necessary requisite to the 
commander of a volunteer army. Of these indi- 
viduals, William Pcppercll, of Kittery, was one — 
a militia colonel — a merchant of unblemished rep- 
utation — well known to the men, beloved and 
admired by them all. On him the appointment 
fell. It was in the midst of Whitefield's revival 



166 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, that the expedition was resolved upon; and the 
vni I 

.^-.^^ famous preacher was consulted. He favored the 

expedition — his newly converted followers enlisted 
— and in some parts of the camp it assumed some- 
what the air of a crusade. The officers shrewdly 
excited the ardor of the men with the hope of 
destroying the images which, they had been told, 
adorned the French churches of the island. One 
Bel- of the chaplains even carried on his shoulder a 
p.'277. hatchet, to cut them down. Enthusiastic ardor 
and religious zeal threw aside the cooler maxims 
of prudence, toleration and justice ; and confidence 
and fortitude raised the minds of all above the 
dread of danger. 

In the beginning of January, orders from Eng- 
land had been despatched to Commodore Warren, 
to come from the Leeward Islands, with such ships 
as he could spare from his fleet, and co-operate 
with the land forces of the colonists. All fortu- 
nate circumstances concurred to favor, and Heaven 
seemed to smile upon the enterprise. Fierce Win- 
ter, tyrant of the north, relaxed his severity in 
the year in which this expedition was planned; and 
the montli of February resembled the mildness of 
November. The harbors and rivers were open. 
The abundant products of the preceding fruitful 
season made it easy to provide plentiful stores; and 
no intelligence of these preparations had reached 
Nova Scotia. The Indians, indeed, had carried 
the news of the Cape Breton Expedition to Can- 
ada, but the guardian angel of the colonies seemed 
to interpose, for the French gave no credit to the 
report. A wonderful good fortune brought to- 
gether, at this time, every ship of war from the 



N E W HAMPSHIRE. 167 

American ports and islands, until Commodore chap. 
Warren, an experienced and judicious officer, had _-„^ 
at his disposal, for the assistance of the colonies, Bei- 
a formidable squadron, consisting of four ships of p. 273. 
the line and six frigates. 

An equally remarkable concurrence of unfortu- 
nate incidents, at this time, attended the French. 
Discontent and mutiny prevailed within the walls 
of Louisburg. The troops of the garrison were 
starving and unpaid. The ships that brought sup- 
plies for them from France, when they came upon 
the coast, and while vainly struggling to cut their 
way through the fields of ice which environed 
the shore, were taken by our cruisers. Yet all 
this was unknown to the garrison. In fancied 
security, but with murmurs and complaints, the 
French passed their days of privation, unconscious 
of the design formed against them. No know- 
ledge of the expedition to Louisburg had reached 
their ears. 

In the small vessels of New England, the March 
troops of Massachusetts embarked at Boston, and 
arrived at Canscau. Ardent for action, and impa- 
tient of delay, the New Hampshire forces, at their ^^^'^^ 
own request, were permitted to sail in advance of 
the others, and had arrived two days before them. 
Met by the ice drifting in heaps, they were obliged 
to stop. While thus delaying at Canseau, they 
were gladdened by the welcome arrival of Com- 23" 
modore Warren's squadron, and the next day, by ill 
the arrival of the Connecticut forces, in a fleet of 
nine vessels. Three weeks they waited for the 
ice of Cape Breton to dissolve, and during all this 
time remained undiscovered within sijjfht of the 



168 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, enemy. An ample supply of provisions was ob- 

..^ tained from the prizes which fell a prey to their 

vigilant cruisers. The armed sloop of New 
Hampshire took one ship from Martinico, and re- 
took a transport which had been taken the day 
before, and had made its escape. By the com- 
mand of Pepperell the same warlike sloop covered 
a detachment which destroyed the little secluded 
village of St. Peters. When the town had been 
laid waste and the inhabitants scattered, the whole 
fleet set sail. 

Many were the schemes which the inventive 
genius of New England suggested, at this early 
day, to supply the place of warlike art. One man 
produced the model of a flying bridge to scale the 
walls. It was to be so light that twenty men could 
carry it on their shoulders to the wall and raise it 
Bel- in a minute. Four blocks and two hundred fath- 

knap, 

p. 274. oms of rope were the apparatus for raising it, and 
it was to be floored with boards wide enough for 
eight men to march on it abreast. A covering of 
raw hides was to guard it from the enemy's fire. 
This bridge, it was said, might be erected against 
any part of the wall, even before a breach had 
been effected, and it was "calculated" by the 
inventor that a thousand men could pass over it in 
four minutes. An ingenious clergyman, burning 
perhaps with honest hatred of the Catholics, pre- 
sented to the general a plan for encamping the 
army, opening trenches and placing batteries. He 
also proposed a caution against subterranean 
mines. This was, that "two confidential persons, 
Be], attended by a guard, should, during the night, 
^"""P- approach the walls ; that one should, with a beetle, 



NEW HAMPSHIIIE. 169 

strike tlw) around, wliile the other should lay his ear chap. 

VIII 

to it, and observe whether the sound was hollow, ^_->l. 
and that a mark should be set on all places sus- 
pected." Vaughan, when he first conceived the 1745. 
design of taking Louisburg, had proposed to go 
over the walls on the drifted snow.* Shirley's plan 
was, that the whole fleet should make Chapeau- 
rouge point just at the shutting in of day — from 
thence to push into the bay undiscovered — the men 
to be landed in the dark and before midnight — to 
cut their way through the surf to the shore, then 
through thicket and bog, three miles, to the city, 
and some of them a mile beyond it, to the royal 
battery — to pull down the pickets with grappling- 
irons, and scale the fortification with ladders ; all 
this in the space of twelve hours from their first 
making the land, and nine hours from their de- 
barkation. Such a scheme could occur only to 
one unskilled in navigation, unmindful of the tem- 
pestuous season, and unacquainted with the dan- 
gerous and inhospitable coast. It was concealed 
from the troops and never attempted. 

The forces proceeded from Canseau with pleas- 
ant weather and favoring winds. Finally, on the Apni 
last day of April, at the dawn of morning, the 
armament of New England, in a hundred vessels, 
bearing only eighteen cannon and three mortars, 
entered the bay of Chapcau-rouge, and came in 
sight of Louisburg. They beheld the walls armed 
with an hundred and one cannon, seventy-six 
swivels, and six mortars. Upwards of sixteen 
liimdred men composed the garrison. But so 

* in that wintry reg^ion the depth of snow is immense, and llic winds 
sometimes raise it in drifts to the height of fifty or sixty feet. 

22 



30. 



170 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, complete were the fortifications, and so decided 
^^...^ were the advantages of locaHty, that three hun- 
dred men were considered sufficient to defend it 
against five thousand besiegers. The New Eng- 
land troops were composed of mechanics, husband- 
men and lumberers. But though unskilled in 
war, tliey were inured to danger. The mechanics 
had been bred with arms in their hands. The 
husbandmen had gone armed to their work in the 
field ; and the lumberer knew the hardships of a 
winter encampment. Many of them were skilful 
marksmen, and had trailed the Indians. 

They had now come to the reduction of a regu- 
larly constructed fortress, which none of them, not 
even their commander, had ever seei^. But they 
were resolute, and animated by an ardent patriot- 
ism, though they knew better how to confront, 
than to measure the dilTiculties and dangers before 
them. At the sight of Louisburg, they lowered 
their boats and flew to the shore. 

Although the plan of a surprisal had failed, by 
the fleet failing to reach Chapeau-rouge point in the 
evening, and the French had seen their white sails 
on the bay, yet they could hardly believe the ex- 
tent of the design formed against the place. The 
first detachments, who came down to oppose the 
besiegers on the shore, were panic-struck, and fled 
to the woods. The troops being landed, it was 
now resolved to invest the city ; and Vaughan, 
ever ready for the most daring adventure, volun- 
teered to conduct the first column through the 
woods and lead on the attack. At the head of 
four hundred men, chiefly from New Hampshire, 
Mi^y at the dead of night, he marched by the city, 



NEW HA3IP SHIRE. 171 

salutinff it with three cheers, and took post near chap 

VHI 

the northeast harbor. There he set fire to the L 

warehouses containing the naval stores. The 1745. 
flames and smoke, which were driven by the wind 
upon the French who had charge of the royal bat- 
tery, annoyed them to such a degree that they 
abandoned it, and, having spiked their guns and 
cut the halliards off the flag-staff*, retired to the city. 
The next morning Vaughan observed from the hill May 2. 
which overlooked the battery, that the fires of the 
barracks were out, and the staff" without a flag. 
For a trifling reward he induced an Indian to 
enter at an embrasure and open the gate. Then 
he wrote to the general these words : " May it 
please your honor to be informed, that by the grace 
of God and the courage of thirteen men I entered 
the royal battery, about nine o'clock, and am 
waiting for a reinforcement and a flag." 

The city had now become alarmed, and a hun- 
dred men were despatched in boats to retake the 
battery. But Vaughan, with his thirteen men, 
resolutely confronted them on the beach, and, in 
the face of a galling fire from the city and the 
boats, kept them from landing till a reinforcement 
arrived. The siege was now prosecuted with en- 
thusiastic ardor. For fourteen nights successively 
the New Hampshire troops were employed in 
dragging the cannon over boggy morasses ; and 
when the wheels sunk in the mire, Meserve, a New 
Hampshire colonel and a ship carpenter, construc- 
ted sledges, on which the cannon w ere placed, and 
the men, with straps on their shoulders, and sink- 
ing to their knees in mud, drew them safely over 
from the landing place to the camp, within cannon- 
shot of the enemy's walls. 



172 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. In the reduction of Louisburg, although courage 
___!, and fortitude were often displayed, yet the move- 
1745. ments of the assailants resembled the irregular and 
crazy ardor of a mob, rather than the systematic 
operations of an army. The whole siege was a 
scene of confusion and tumult. The men laughed 
at discipline ; and such were the irregularities 
and want of system, that the soldiers themselves, 
when they looked back upon the dangers they had 
passed, regarded their preservation as scarcely 
less than miraculous. Though the consultations 
of the officers preserved all the formalities of a 
council of war, though the orders of the general 
were formally issued, and returns made at the 
several posts, yet the camp was wholly without 
discipline. While the front of the army presented a 
formidable array to the enemy, the rear was a scene 
of confusion and frolic. The men, when not on 
duty in the trenches, were fishing, racing, wrest- 
ling, and running after shot from the enemy's guns. 
For these they received a bounty, and then sent them 
back to the enemy. Had the mutinous spirit of 
the garrison been so far subdued that the officers 
could have trusted the men to make a sortie, the 
camp of the besiegers might have been surprised 
and the whole army destroyed. 

The garrison numbered at least six hundred 
regular troops and a thousand Breton militia. 
But this force was too feeble to admit of making 
sallies. Hunting parties of the assailants were 
ever on the watch to prevent surprise by land, and 
the fleet of Admiral Warren, ever vigilant, guarded 
the approaches by sea. Still, however, the siege 
proceeded slowly. Four or five unsuccessful at- 



NEW HA3IP SHIRE. 173 

tempts had been made to take the island battery, chap 
which commanded the entrance to the harbor. .___ 
The troops were chagrined by the failure, and 1745. 
the more it was talked of amongst them, the more 
their pride and obstinacy revolted against aban- 
doning the undertaking. At length a party of 
four hundred men volunteered, from the different 
regiments, to go, under a chief of their own selec- 
tion, and attack the battery by night. But this May2c. 
attempt, like the others, was signally defeated. 
Their approach was discovered ; — a murderous croft, 

fire struck the boats before they could effect a J^^'- 

•' F. Bel- 

landing ; — only a part of the forces reached the ^^^^?^ 

shore — and these, after a severe contest of nearly 
an hour, were glad to escape to the boats, leaving 
behind sixty killed and one hundred and sixteen 
taken prisoners. 

After this failure, it was evident that the expe- 
dition must be abandoned or the walls of the city 
scaled ; for, notwithstanding the incificicncy of 
the garrison, the French were daily making the 
fortifications stronger, and no breach had as yet 
been effected. It was now resolved in council of 
war to make preparations for a general assault. 
The naval officers agreed to sail into the harbor 
and bombard the city, while the land forces were 
to attempt to enter the fortress by storm. To 
annoy the island battery, the Americans, under 
command of Gridley, of Boston, erected a battery 
on the Lighthouse Cliff; while, within two hun- 
dred yards of the city, trenches were thrown up, 
and the guns of the royal battery began to play 
upon the northwest gate of the city. Yet no breach 
had been effected. The works were of immense 




174 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, strength, and able to resist a much greater force, 
had Duchambon been acquainted with his duties. 
But in the midst of these hostile demonstrations, 
the garrison received intelligence that the Vigilant, 
a French ship of sixty-four guns, laden with mili- 
tary stores for the garrison, had been decoyed into 
the midst of the English fleet, and, after an en- 

Junei5. gagement of some hours, had been taken, within 
sight of Louisburg. When they heard of the loss 

16. of their supplies, the garrison became discouraged ; 
the desponding and irresolute Duchambon sent 
out a flag of truce ; terms of capitulation were 

17. agreed upon; and, on the seventeenth of June, the 
city, with the fort and all the batteries, were sur- 
rendered to the English. When they entered, 
and beheld the extent and variety of the means of 
defence, the stoutest hearts were appalled at the 
vast strength of the place, and the utter impracti- 
cability of carrying it by assault. They shud- 
dered at the dangers they had passed, and thought 
the taking of the city to be a special providence 
of God. 

No sooner was the city taken, and the victorious 

F.Bel- besiegers sheltered within its walls, than the 

S' weather, which had been remarkably dry, changed, 

and an incessant rain often days succeeded. Had 

this happened during the siege, it would have been 

fatal to many of the troops. They had no tents 

thick enough to keep off* the fogs, and slept upon 

the earth in turf and brush houses. But the 

weather was only in accordance with the general 

Doug- good fortune. The whole siege was a succession 

330.' of lucky accidents on the part of the English, and 

of equally unlucky ones on the part of the French. 



I 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 175 

"If any one circumstance," says Douglass, "had chap. 

taken a wrong turn on our side, and if any one L 

.circumstance had not taken a wrong turn on the ^'^'^'^^ 
French side, the expedition must have miscarried." 

Soon after the surrender, the triumphant army 
held a council of war within the walls, and it was 
determined to maintain the place, and repair the 
breaches. The French flag was still kept flying 
upon the ramparts, and served to decoy many a 
rich prize into the harbor. With the exception of 
Cluebec, Louisburg was the strongest fortress on 
the continent. The fall of it, at such a time, could 
not but fill America with joy, and Europe with 
astonishment. It was the greatest achievement of 
the war. Pepperell and Warren each of them 
received the title of a baronet ; the latter was pro- 
moted to the rank of admiral, and the former was 
commissioned as a colonel in the British service. 
Vaughan sailed for England, and urged his claims 
to similar distinctions, which, after a year of delay, 
v/ere coldly rejected, shortly before his death. 

Thus, while the successful commanders of the 
expedition were distinguished by the honors of 
knighthood, Vaughan, the originator of the enter- 
prise, and the most gallant spirit of the crusade, 
remained more than a year in England, in the vain 
expectation of receiving some token of recognition 
from the sovereign, whom he had so signally Dim- 
served, and finally died in an obscure street in the m^x^ot 
metropolis, a disappointed man. Warren claimed voi."i.,' 
the victory to himself, and the English govern- \!.o ' 
ment awarded it to him. The ministry suppressed \\\'Ll:s 
the facts which were urged upon them in support land" 
of Vaughan's claims. Warren entered the high mcrica. 



176 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, court of Admiralty in England, and deposed on 

..^^ oath that, with the assistance of his majesty's ships, 

^L^J' ^^^' ^^^^ deponent, " did subdue the whole island of 

2^ Cape Breton." But it is time to declare that not 

Admiral Warren, nor yet Sir William Pepperell, 

was the real hero of Louisburg ; but that what was 

wanting in the good fortune of the besiegers and 

the inefficiency of the garrison, was supplied by the 

fiery valor of Vaughan, the cool intrepidity of Wol- 

cot, and the hardy courage of Gridley, Meserve 

and Fernald. 

The active mind of Shirley had contemplated, not 
merely the capture of Cape Breton, but the con- 
quest of all the French dominions on the western 
hemisphere. Immediately after the fall of Lou- 
isburg, he repaired thither, and consulted with 
Warren and Pepperell on the practicability of such 
a design. From the captured city he wrote to the 
British ministry, enforcing his solicitations by the 
1746. brilliant success at Louisburg. In the follow- 
ApniG. jj^^ spring the Duke of Newcastle wrote to all the 
American governors, as far south as Virginia, call- 
ing upon them to form companies of one hundred 
men each, and hold themselves in readiness to 
march. The plan was, that a squadron of ships of 
war, and land forces from England, should be 
joined by the New England forces, at Louisburg, 
and proceed together up the river St. Lawrence. 
The troops of New York, and the other provinces 
at the southward, were to rendezvous at Albany, 
and march against Crown Point and Montreal. 

Besides the conquest of Canada, there were 
other reasons for this expedition. The Indians, as 
I shall hereafter relate, were at this time ravaging 



I 



NEW HAMTSIIIKE. 177 

the fields, and carrying the torch and the scalping- chap. 
knife along the whole extent of the frontiers. Was .^.^1, 
it not an inefficient, as well as a disgraceful mode 
of warfare, to act entirely on the defensive, espe- 
cially after the success which had attended the arms 
of the colonists at Louisburg ? Were scouts and j,j,^^ 
garrisons sufficient to dispirit the enemy and secure 
the frontiers from depredations ? Little argument 
was needed. The design was popular, and the 
colonies readily furnished their quotas. 

The assembly of New Hampshire was immedi-r june. 
ately convened, and voted* to enlist a thousand mem 
They w^cre also to keep in pay two armed vessels. 
The same difficulty occurred about the emission 
of bills of credit, as on occasion of the Louisburg 
expedition — and was as easily remedied.! The 
command of the troops was given to Colonel At- 
kinson ; and so promptly did the men enlist, that 
at the beginning of July eight hundred were ready 
for embarkation. Transports and provisions were 
also prepared ; but neither orders, nor general, 
nor fleet arrived from England. Seven times did 
they leave Spithead, and seven times returned 
again. Only two regiments ever reached Louis- 
burg. All summer long, the men of the colonies 
lingered in suspense, waiting for employment. 

But the whole country is now thrown into con- 
sternation. France has planned the recovery of 
Louisburg and the desolation of all the English 
colonies. Report flies, that a large French fleet 
and army have arrived at Nova Scotia, under com- 
mand of the Duke D'Anville. The troops des- 

» Prov. Rec, Jour. Council and Assembly, 1742—1750. Jour. House, 
1742—174':. t P- R-, J- C. and A., 1742—50. J. H., 1742—47. 

23 



178 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, tinecl for Canada are detained at home. The 
_.,..-^ mihtia are collected to join them. Old forts on 
the sea-coast are repaired — new ones are erected. 
Another battery of sixteen guns, throwing thirty- 
two and twenty-four pounds shot, is added to fort 
William and Mary, at the entrance of Piscataqua 
harbor ; another, of nine thirty-two pounders, is 
placed at the point of Little Harbor, Military 
guards are appointed, and for six weeks the people 
are kept in a state of fear and anxiety. At length 
some released prisoners bring the most affecting 
accounts of distress on board the French fleet. 
A pestilence has broken out amongst the men. 
Eleven hundred were buried at Halifax, and hun- 
dreds more of the dead were buried in the deep 
sea. 
1746. The officers were divided in their councils, and 
this, added to the disasters of continued storms and 
shipwrecks, so dejected the commander-in-chief 
that he put an end to his life by poison. The 
second in command, in a fit of delirium, rushed 
F Bel- "P^^T' ^'^ sword and ended his life. By these mel- 
knap, ancholy events the first plan was disconcerted. 
They were next to attack Annapolis. But in 
sailing from Chebuctoo, they were overtaken by a 
violent storm, off Cape Sable, and the ships which 
escaped destruction returned singly to France. 
Thus the French armada had been vanquished 
without even the sight of an enemy. 

When the alarm of the French fleet had passed, 
Atkinson marched with his res^iment to cover the 
lower part of the frontiers, and encamped on the 
shores of Lake Winnipiseogee. Here they passed 
an idle winter, with plenty of provisions, without 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 179 

exercise, discipline, courts martial, or the punish- chap. 

. vni 

ment of offences. The men grew tired of the ser- .^..^.^ 

vice ; but not being permitted to engage in other 
business, they were employed in scouting, hunting 
and fishing. Some deserted. The ensuing sum- 
mer was passed in listless indolence. They re- 
posed in the expectation of peace, until autumn of 
the next year, when, by direction of the Duke of 
Newcastle, the provincial army was disbanded. It ^^^^^• 
appeared to many that England had not desired to 
drive the French from Canada. It was even sus- 
pected that England, from motives of policy, 
deemed it necessary to stimulate the love of the 
colonies for the mother country, by keeping this 
dangerous enemy on the frontier. It was sup- 
posed that the presence of the French was the only 
force that could urge the colonics to submission. 
They were forbidden to estaljlish manufactures. 
They were obliged to ship to England all the sil- 
ver and gold which they took from the earth. 
They were not allowed any commerce of their 
own* with foreign countries, except those under 
the dominion of England. These, and similar 
restrictions, cooled their ardor towards the father- 
land. Old England counted on long years of 
colonial dependence ; but a Swedish traveller,! 
even then, discovered in the rising colonies the 
germ of freedom. 

During the progress of the Cape Breton expe- 1746. 
dition and the meditated attack upon Canada, the 
frontiers were infested by tiie Indians. While the 
colonial troops wore away the summer in idly 
waiting for the armament from England, the In- 

» N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 323. t r<-''cr Kalm. Bancroft, HI., 461 



180 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, dians were at leisure to infest the frontiers. This 

;, inactivity was fatal to many a settler. No longer 

awed, but rather invited by the repose of an army 

1745. able to fight, and prepared for the field, yet doing 
nothing, the Indians took courage and commenced 
a series of depredations. They first appeared at 

Julys. Great-Meadow,* and next at the Upper Ashuelot,t 
July 10. killing William Philips at the former place and 
Josiah Fisher at the latter. They approached the 
fort at Great-Meadow and carried captive the fa- 
ther! of a family. As they were leading him along 
the river-side, they met his son, before whose eyes 
the father was hurried away, and died in one of the 
prisons of Q,ucbec. Many were the heart-rending 
incidents like this, which marked the war — chil- 
dren carried captive before the eyes of their pa- 
rents — husbands slain while defending their wives 
— and brothers and sisters falling, while fighting 
at each others' side. 

1746. The next spring the enemy appeared at Number 
Four,§ carried away three captives, cut out the 
tongues of their cattle, and in April laid a plan to 
surprise the fort at Upper Ashuelot. On the 

April twenty-third of April, when night came on, a par- 
ty of fifty silently approached and hid themselves 
in a swamp. Here they lay concealed till morn- 
ing, intending to rush into the fort. But they 
were discovered as day dawned, and the alarm was 
given. One man, who bravely defended himself 
against two Indians in close combat, one of whom 
he stripped of his blanket and gun, was over- 

1746. powered at last and fell. Another man and one 

* Now Westmoreland. f Now Keene. 

X Penhallow. N. H. Hist. Coll., I. <j Now Charlestown. 



I 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. l8l 

woman were slain, and one man carried captive to chap. 

vni. 
Canada. At New Hopkinton* eight persons, five .^-..^ 

of them children, and one a woman, were carried 27" 
captive ; one of the men and three of the children 
were all that ever returned from captivity, and 
these were sent with a flag of truce to Boston. 
As usual, the enemy scattered themselves in small 
parties. At Number Four, and Contoocook, and May 2. 
the Lower and Upper Ashuelot, they fell upon the May e. 
inhabitants, and killed or carried them captive to 
Canada. As the danger increased, Massachusetts 
determined to send reinforcements of troops to 
relieve the distressed towns ; and accordingly Cap- jjayj^ 
tain Paine, with a troop, came to Number Four. 
Twenty of them fell into an ambush at the spot 
where Mr. Putnam had been killed, and a skir- 
mish ensued, in which five men were killed on each 
side, and one Englishman taken prisoner. This 
engagement was succeeded, in less than a month, 
by another at the same place. The Indians were 
discovered in ambush by dogs, which gave the 
alarm to the men, and enabled them to give the 
first fire. After a sharp encounter the Indians 
retreated to a swamp, carrying with them the dead, 
and leaving on the ground a considerable booty of 1746. 
blankets, hatchets, spears and guns. All business 
was suspended, even the tillage of the fields. 
Every place was full of danger. If the people j^^^^'' 
wanted bread, they were obliged to go to the mills J^fyJ; 
with a guard. At Bridgrnan's fort, near fort J"ne 
Dummer, at Number Four, and at Winchester, 
the inhabitants were fired upon, the houses burned, 
and the roads ambushed. 

• * Now Hopkinton. 



Aug. 3. 
Aug. 6. 



\S2 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Such were the sufferings of the upper settle- 

^ I ments. Nor did the lower towns escape. At Ro- 

June27. Chester the enemy fired upon five men, who were at 
work in a field, expecting an attack, with their arms 
near them. Afi.er the first fire they rushed upon the 
men, befiare they could reload their guns. They 
retreated to a small deserted house. The Indians 
tore off the roof, and with their guns and toma- 
hawks despatched four of the men, and wounded 
and took captive the other. Both Penacook and 
Contoocook they attacked, killing some of the peo- 
ple, and carrying others into captivity. In the midst 
of alarm and apprehension, slaughter and dread of 
attack, the summer was passed, until August, 
Aug.20. when a body of French and Indians attacked fort 
Massachusetts, at Hoosuck. For want of ammu- 
nition it could not be defended, and fell into their 
hands. This success seemed to satisfy the enemy, 
and during that summer they made no other attack. 
1746. Amid the ravages of this war, early in 1746, a 
sale, by Mason's heir, of his whole claim on the 
soil of New Hampshire, to a company of gentle- 
men in Portsmouth, terminated the tedious con- 
troversy between the people and the proprietor. 
They prudently quit-claimed alf the towns granted 
previously by New Hampshire and Massachu- 
setts. This concession quieted the inhabitants, 
and prevented any opposition to the titles to un- 
granted lands which the purchase gave. They 
were judicious in making grants, and took care 
to promote the settlement of their lands. The 
public mind gradually became reconciled to them, 
and the public interests were identified with the 
interest of the Masonian proprietors. 



Bel- 
knap, 
292. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 183 

In 3Iarch of the next year, Capt. Phineas Ste- chap. 

. vni 

vens came with a company of thirty rangers and ^-^.^^ 

took possession of the fort at Number Four. 
Scarcely had he entered, when he was attacked 
by a party of French and Indians. They had 
come undiscovered, and lay in wait, watching a 
favorable moment to begin the attack. But the 
faithful dogs of the garrison gave notice of their 
concealment. Finding that they were discovered, 
the Indians rose and commenced a fire from all 
sides at the fort. They now determined to set 
fire to the fences and log houses. The wind rose, 
and the fort was surrounded with the flames. 
Stevens immediately ordered trenches to be dug 
under the walls. Through these the men crept, 
and extinguished the fires that caught outside the 
walls. The flaming arrows, which the Indians ^ 
shot incessantly at the fort, took no effect ; and at 
length, after two days of firing, accompanied with 
hideous shouts and yells, finding no effect had 
been produced, they prepared a wheel carriage 
loaded with combustibles. This was to be pushed 
before them against the walls, and then to be set 
on fire. Before putting it in motion, they de- 
manded a cessation of arms, till the rising of the 
sun. This was granted. 

In the morning, Debeline, their commander, 
came forward with fifty men and a flag of truce. 
A French ofliicer, with a soldier and an Indian, then 1747 
advanced and proposed terms of capitulation — ^P"'* 
which were, that the garrison should lay down 
their arms and be conducted prisoners to Montreal. 
It was agreed that the two commanders should 
meet, and Stevens' answer should then be given. 



I84i HISTORY OF 

CHAP. When they met, the Frenchman, without waiting 

._ for an answer, began to enforce his first proposal, 

by threatening to storm the fort and put every man 
to the sword. Stevens reph'ed that he had been 
entrusted with the defence of the fort, and should 
maintain it to the last. " Go then," replied the 
Frenchman, "and see if your men dare to fight 
any longer." Stevens returned and put to his men 
the question, " Will you fight or surrender?" 
With one voice they replied, "We will fight!" 
This response was immediately made known to the 
enemy, and both parties resumed their arms. On 
the morning of the third day they requested another 
cessation of two hours. Two Indians came up 
with a flag, and proposed new conditions of sur- 
render. These were promptly refused. The 
Indians again resumed their arms, fired a few 
guns, and then sullenly retired. 

Such was the defence of the rangers. No lives 
were lost in the fort, and only two were wounded. 
But the cool intrepidity of the rangers entitled 
them, in the estimation of their countrymen, to all 
the applause of victory. The news of their success 
was received in Boston with public demonstrations 
of joy. Commodore Sir Charles Knowlcs, struck 
with/ the gallantry of Stevens, presented him with 
a sword ; and from this Number Four took the 
name of Charlestown. 

Through the summer and autumn, the Indians 
continued their ravages, hovering about the settle- 
ments, and lying in ambush for the men at work 
in the fields. At Rochester, at Penacook and 
Winchester, at Hinsdale, Suncook and Netting- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 185 

ham, they appeared, and again at Number Four chap. 

in the winter. L 

The next year, depredations were committed at 1748. 
Rochester, on West River, and between fort junJie! 

Julv 14 

Hinsdale and fort Dummer. The year 1749 was 1749.' 
not entirely exempt from Indian hostilities. But 
throughout this whole scene of devastation, the 
Indians had forborne to exercise those arts of tor- 
ture and cruelty which in former years had re- 
doubled the horrors of captivity. Roasting their 
prisoners by a slow fire, cutting out their tongues, 
and maiming and disfiguring them, had all been 
discontinued. Even the custom of makingf them 
run the gauntlet had been omitted. The returning 
captives exhibited in their appearance the good 
treatment they had received, and bore unusual 
testimony in favor of the humanity of their captors. 
When feeble, they had been assisted to travel. 
When sick, they had been allowed to halt. When 1749. 
famine overtook them on the slow steps of their 
dreary marches, the Indians had shared their pro- 
visions with them in equal proportion, even to the 
last morsel which remained to the captors them- 
selves, in the most pinching scarcity. 

By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, peace had 1748. 
been re-established between Ensfland and France. 
This was quickly followed by a treaty with the 
Indians, concluded at Portland. Cape Breton, 
*' won by Americans, was given up by England."* 
Prisoners were restored without ransom. Con- 
quests made during the war were given up, and all 
the warriors of the eastern tribes solemnly prom- 
ised to be at peace. Though not susceptible of 

* Dunlap's Hist. New York, vol. I., p. 361. 
24 



18G HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the finer feelings of humanity, and averse to the 

VHI . 

L. more humane maxims of civiHzed warfare, yet, 

while in the service of France, the blood-thirsty 
savage had been forbidden to flay his prisoner 
alive, and was often compelled to surrender the 
victim whom he was preparing to bind for torture. 

Thus ended, in 1749, another Indian war. The 
promise of the natives not to resume the hatchet, 
so often renewed and so frequently disregarded, 
was kept but five years. But even that interval 
seemed long to the class of military men, who had 
grown up to a considerable number, by the neces- 
sities of the colony. The industry of peace was 
burdensome, and to them this short interval seemed 
long. 
1749. The population of New Hampshire had doubled 
within eighteen years, and now amounted to thirty 
thousand. The tide of emigration rolled rapidly 
northward ; and among those who were projecting 
new settlements, many turned their eyes to the 
rich lands on the west bank of the Connecticut, in 
the present state of Vermont. It was not then 
foreseen that on these lands there would rise, at 
no distant day, a vigorous and powerful state. 

These lands were claimed by New York ; and 
she contended that her eastern boundary extended 
to the Connecticut. It was true that she had 
permitted the provinces of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut to extend to a line drawn twenty miles 
eastward of the Hudson. But this she viewed in 
the light of a voluntary concession to those pro- 
vinces, which they had no right to claim ; and if 
they had no right, neither had New Hampshire ; 
so that nothing but a voluntary concession could 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 187 

give New Hampshire a right to the lands west- chap. 
ward, beyond the Connecticut; and that, as no such ,__^ 
concession had been made, there was no reason 
why the territory of New York should not extend 
to the limit prescribed by the charter. On the other 
hand, New Hampshire contended that "the king p. 94" 
allowed her southern line to extend to the west, till 
it met his majesty's other provinces ; and that 
there was no reason for permitting Massachusetts 
and Connecticut to pass westward to within twenty 
miles of the Hudson, which did not apply with 
equal force to the claims of New Hampshire." 

The profits of granting lands were grateful to 
the unbounded appetite of Wentworth for wealth 
and splendor, and he accordingly made a practical 
assertion of the claim of New Hampshire to the 
Vermont lands by granting the township of Ben- 
nington. Other grants followed, at short intervals, 
for three years ; until the French war, breaking 
out, interrupted the progress of new settlements, 
and drew the attention and resources of the colo- 
nies to the conquest of Canada and the expulsion 
of the French. 

The war, which closed in 1749, had absorbed all 
other contests ; and internal dissensions had either 
been checked or wholly silenced during its con- 
tinuance. There were, however, existing contro- 
versies between the governor and the people, which 
only awaited the return of peace to break out with 
new virulence and accumulated fury. The gov- 
ernor had resolved upon the maintenance of fort 
Dummer ;* and to ensure a majority in the house in 
favor of the measure, he had issued writs to towns 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 143—145. 



188 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, known to be friendly to the project, leaving other 
Z^ towns of equal or greater population unrepre- 
sented. When the new members appeared, the 
house refused them their seats ;* and, though 
Wentworth had once yielded the point to the 
house, when pressed by the exigencies of the 
war, and the new members were excluded, yet 
now, being supported by fresh instructions from 
the king, and finding that a yielding policy did 
not meet royal approbation, he resolved to con- 
test it with the house. This led to an open 
rupture ; the house refused to recede, and the 
governor was equally obstinate. Each side was 
strongly supported by precedent. It appeared that 
all additions to the house had been made by au- 
thority of their own. On the other hand, the right 
of sending representatives was founded on the royal 
commission and instructions. But the people were 
already, at this early day, jealous of strengthening 
the prerogatives of the crown. On the other 
hand, the governor represented the king, and in- 
clined to abridge rather than enlarge the privileges 
of the people. The governor and house contented 
themselves for three years with writing violent mes- 
sages to each other, and meanwhile wholly neglect- 
1749. ed the public business. The treasurer's accounts 
were unsettled — the soldiers unpaid — the recorder's 
office closed. Confusion and clamor were the con- 
sequence, and the voice of complaint came loudly 
from the people. The neglected soldiers gained 
sympathy everywhere when they told their tale of 
service unrequited and hardships endured. 

The opponents of the governor, eager to com- 

* Trov. Rec, Jour. Council and Assembly, 1742—1750. J. H., 17-17—1755 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 189 

pass his removal and raise William Pepperell to chap. 
his place, seeing his popularity severely shaken, at .^,^.,1, 
once transmitted a complaint against him to Eng- 
land. But so decided was the opposition which it 
met from the English ministry, that it was not 
presented to the king, and was never renewed. 

A new assembly* was called in 1752. Mode- 1752. 
ration prevailed — the new members were admitted 
to their seats, by mutual concession. Meshack 
Weare, whose rising popularity commended him 
equally to the governor and the house, was elected 
speaker. A liberal distribution of offices and 
military commissions softened the resentment of 
the governor's opponents, and the public business 
once more claimed the attention of the assembly. 
In the course of this controversy, the governor had 
negatived the choice of Richard Waldron as 
speaker of the house ; nor could the peremptory 
and severe messages of Wcntv.orth compel them to 
choose a new speaker. These altercations between 
two co-ordinate branches of a colonial govern- 
ment, aside from the disastrous consequences to 
public business,! would be of little consequence 
to the history of the state, were it not that the 
governor represented the king ; and therefore the 
determined resistance of the house was in fact but 
the manifestation of a growing jealousy of the 
royal prerogative — a growing desire for self-rule 
— the germ of a republic — the dawning hope of 
Liberty and Independence. 

The war being over, the scattered settlers 
returned to their homes. Some came bringing 

* Prov. Rec, Jour. Council and Assembly, 1750—1765. J. H., 1747—1755. 
t P. R., J. H., 17.17—1755. C. and A., 1750—1765. 



190 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, accessions to their numbers — others with increased 

VHI. 

famiHes ; and so the wilderness began to bloom 

once more. It was feared that the French were 
about to encroach upon the rich meadows of 
Haverhill and Newbury, and a few persons re- 
solved to plant a settlement as a barrier against 

1752. them. In pursuance of this resolution, a party 
passed northward in the spring, to view the inter- 
vals and lay out the proposed townships. The 
tribes of the St. Francis observed them with jeal- 
ousy, and suspected their design. An embassy, 
composed of warriors, soon appeared at Number 
Four, with a flag of truce, and complained of the 
encroachment. They averred that they had not 
heard of the late treaty, reproached the English 
for craving more land than they could cultivate, 
and threatened hostilities. The warlike remains 
of the tribes once planted in New Hampshire were 
united to the Aresaguntacooks,* and the fugitives 
from western Maine had planted revenge and re- 
sentment in the bosoms of the Canada warriors. 
Besides, they knew the value of their lands, they 
felt themselves the rightful lords of the soil, and 
they still clung, with the pride of Indians, to the 
hunting-grounds of their fathers. Captain Stevens 
gave them little satisfaction. With their jealousy 
aroused, and the remembrance of ancient injuries 
rankling in their breasts, they crossed the moun- 
tains and pursued their way eastward into the 
present township of Rumney. Four hunters, in 
quest of game, had wandered northward along the 
course of Baker's river, and were met by the war- 
riors of the St. Francis. Immediately, on per- 

* Another name for the St. Francis Indians. 



I 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 191 

ceiviiifi^ the hunters, they rushed upon them with chap. 

. vni. 
their tomahawks. One escaped* by flight — one 

was killed — and the remaining two taken prisoners. 
The Indians, returning, proceeded up the Con- 
necticut, and down Lake Memphremagog, to the 
head-quarters of their tribe. When they arrived at 
St. Francis, the captives perceived, from the signs 
and motions, of the captors, that they were to run 
the gauntlet, according to savage custom. This 
consists in passing through two parallel files of 
warriors, each of whom is privileged to give the 
prisoners a blow. The elder of the prisoners 
passed through first, and suflfcred little less than 
death. The younger and remaining one was a lad 
of sixteen years. When his turn came, he marched 
forward with a bold air, snatched a club from the Me. 
nearest Indian, and attacked the warriors as he of^Gen. 
advanced along the lines, dealing the blows right p^^rs'. 
and left with a merciless and almost deadly force. 
Nothing in the conduct of a prisoner so charms 
the savage mind as a haughty demeanor and con- 
tempt of death. The old men were amused and 
delighted, the young warriors were struck with 
admiration, at the gallant bearing of the youthful 
captive. They next ordered him to hoe corn. 
He cut it up by the roots, declaring that such 
work was fit for squaws, but unworthy of warriors. 
From that moment he became their favorite. They 
adopted him as a son, and gave him the title of 
Young Chief They dressed him in the highest 
style of Indian splendor, and decorated him with 
wampum and silver. It was not long after, that 
Captain Stevens was despatched on an embassy to 

* A brother of the youngest of the prisoners. 



note. 



192 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Canada, to redeem the English captives. The 
VIII . . 

..^^L first one offered him was their favorite Young 

Chief. Captain Stevens received him at their 
hands with dehght. But no one of the rude 
warriors recognised, in the young chief of their 
adoption, the future American general, John 
Stark. 

Another event soon occurred, which furnished 
aliment to the already sliarpened resentment of this 
hostile tribe. Two of their warriors, Sabatis and 
1753. piausawa, came to Contoocook, and lodged at the 
house of a man who killed them the next day. By 
the road-side, on the bank of the Merrimac river, 
Bowen, the murderer, on the morning after these 
two Indians had lodged at his house, plunged a 
tomahawk into the head of Sabatis, and, drawing 
it out, went back to meet Piausawa, who, seeing 
^kn?' ^^^ ^^^^ of his companion, pointed his gun at Bow- 
P^307, en's breast; but it flashed. Piausawa now fell 
on his knees and begged for his life. He pleaded 
his innocence, and his t'ormer friendship for the 
English ; but in vain. Bowen buried in his skull 
the tomahawk still reeking with the blood of 
Sabatis, and hid them both under a bridge. Their 
bodies were dragged forth by the wild beasts of 
the woods, and the bones scattered on the ground. 
By the treaty of peace it had been stipulated 
that each party should punish its own offenders. 
The murderer of Sabatis and Piausawa was appre- 
hended and brought to Portsmouth. But on the 
night preceding the day for his trial, an armed 
mob, with axes and crow-bars, entered the pri- 
son and bore him off in triumph. Rewards for 
his discovery were of no avail. Public opinion 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 193 

pronounced the rescue meritorious. The murders chap. 
committed by the Indians were remembered — the ^-...^ 
treaty was forgotten. Thus the pHghted faith of 
the treaty was broken. But what could the feeble 
tribes of the St. Francis do? They received a 
handsome present, and made answer, that " the 
blood was wiped away" — then ratified the treaty 
of 1749. But the desire for revenge grew from 
reflection ; and afterwards, when a conference was 
held with several tribes at Portland, the St. Fran- 
cis refused to be present, and sent a message pur- 
porting that the blood was not wiped away. 

By the treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, the island of 
Cape Breton was restored to France, and all 
things were placed "on the footing they were 
before the war." But the limits of the French 
and English territories on the continent were still 
undetermined. The avarice and ambition of two 
mighty nations were still left to make the colonial 
territories the theatre of a war for conquest — the 
game of kings. Both parties agreed to submit theii 
pretensions to a board of commissioners, mutually 
chosen. The commissioners met at Paris, but 
determined nothing. France resolved to connect 
her distant settlements of Canada and Louisiana. 
These colonies, so widely separated, could be 
joined by a chain of forts stretchhig from the St. 
Lawrence to the Mississippi. To command navi- 
gation in the winter, it was also necessary to 
extend the limits of Canada eastward, far south of 
the great river St. Lawrence. These claims of 
territory encroached upon the English colonies of 
Nova Scotia, New York, and Virginia. When it 
was foreseen that no arbiter but the sword could 
25 



194) HISTORY OF 

CHAP, decide the controversy, the Earl of Holderiiess. 

^,_ secretary of state, recommended to the colonies 

a union. The first object was their mutual pro- 
tection and defence — the second, extending the 
British settlements in North America. Dele- 
gates* of the several colonies accordingly met in 

1754. general congress, at Albany ; and on the fourth 
day of July, twenty-two years before the decla- 
ration of American independence, a plan of union 
was agreed to. It provided for a general govern- 
ment, consisting of a grand council of delegates 
from the several colonial legislatures, subject to 
kinip, the control of a president-general, to be appointed 

^' "^' by the crown, with a negative voice. The dele- 
gates of Connecticut immediately entered their 
dissent to the plan, on account of the negative 
voice of the president-general. It was viewed in 
America with disapprobation, and rejected, be- 
cause it gave too much power to the king ; and 
with distrust in England, because it left too much 
power with the colonies. 

At the first alarm of expected hostilities, the 
Indian tribes in the French interest resumed the 
hatchet, and fell upon the frontier settlements of 
New Hampshire. Though careful to preserve the 
lives of their prisoners, now made valuable on 

1754. account of the high price paid for them in Mont- 
real, yet, in the heat of actual contest, they still 
slaughtered women f without pity. 

1755. The campaign of 1755 opened, on the part of 
the English, by three expeditions destined to attack 

* Province Records, Journal House, 1747 — 1755. Council and Assembly, 
1750—1765. 
t Penhallow— N. H. Hist. Coll., 1., 13—132. 



NEW HA Mr SHI RE. 195 

the French forts ; one asrainst fort Da Q,uesne, chap. 

VHI. 

on the Ohio, led by General Brarldock — another . .^ 

against Niagara, by Governor Shirley — and a third 
against Crown Point, by General Johnson. For 
this expedition New Hampshire raised five hun- 
dred men; and Colonel Blanchard, of Dunstable, 
distinguished as a land surveyor, was appointed to 
the command. Johnson reached the shores of lake 
George, and encamped, posting the New Hamp- 
shire regiment at fort Edward. Early in Septem- 
ber, on the eighth, Johnson was attacked in his Sept.s. 
camp, by the Baron Dieskau, at the head of a 
formidable body of French Canadians and Indians. 
On the morning of that day a scouting party from 
fort Edward discovered some wagons burning in j^^|'- 
the road. Col. Blanchard immediately detached p- 313- 
Captain Nathaniel Folsom with eighty of the New 
Hampshire regiment, and forty of the New York, 
under Captain M'Gennis. They came to the 
place, and found the wagoners dead, but no enemy 
was there. Hearing the report of guns in the 
direction of the lake, they directed their march 
tliither, and when within two miles of the shore, 
they came upon the baggage of the French army, 
under a guard. They attacked and dispersed the 
guard, but had scarcely seized the booty, when 
the army of Dieskau came in sight, retreating. 
Folsom posted his men behind trees, and com- 
menced a galling fire. The enemy retired with ' 
great loss, and Folsom returned to his camp. In 
this well-timed engagement, but six men were lost 
on the side of the English, and all the ammunition 
and baggage of the French fell into their hands. 
After this, the New Hampshire regiment joined the 



196 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, army, and were employed as scouts. After this 

^ battle, when it became necessary to reinforce the 

army, another regiment was raised in New Hamp- 
shire, commanded by Colonel Peter Gilman ; and 
they also acted as scouts. Alert, indefatigable, 
accustomed to savage warfare, inured to danger 
and fatigue, acquainted with the enemy's hiding- 
places, they continued to render essential services 
till the army was disbanded and returned home, 
late in autumn. 

These three expeditions against the French all 
signally failed. Braddock was overwhelmed with 
defeat, and slain on the banks of the Monongahela. 
Washington, calm and collected amidst the con- 
sternation and uproar of this dreadful rout, rallied 
the faithful "Virginia Blues,"* when the English 
gave way, led them on to the charge, killed num- 
bers of the enemy, who were rushing on with tom- 
ahawks, checked their pursuit, and brought off the 
Davies' shattcrcd remains of the British army. " Provi- 
scrmon ^j^^^^^^g " j^ ^yj^g gaid, cvcu at that early day, — 
dodc's " Providence has preserved that heroic youth for 
some great service to his country." 

Shirley accomplished nothing ; and the expedi- 
tion of Johnson against Crown Point served only 
to provoke the fury of the Indians against the fron- 
tiers of New Hampshire, now wholly exposed and 
unprotected. The tribes of the St. Francis, not 
yet revenged, having established an easy commu- 
nication between the Connecticut valley and the 
head-quarters of their nation, made frequent incur- 
sions eastward, up the Ashuelot, and into Walpole, 
1756. Hinsdale, and Number Four. The next year, 

* TrumbuH's Indian Wars, p. 120. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 197 

Shirley, who rose to the post of commander-in- 
chief, on the death of Braddock, planned another 
expedition against Crown Point. New Hampshire, 
that never failed in her quota of men, sent a regi- 
ment into the field, led by Colonel Meserve. But, 
in the midst of the campaign, Shirley was super- 
seded by the Earl of Loudon. From that moment 
the war languished. The summer passed in fruit- 
less marches and labor. The French besieged 
and took the English fort at Oswego, and sent the 
regiments of Shirley and Pepperell prisoners to 
France. 

Then were formed from the New Hampshire 
troops, by the express desire of Lord Loudon, 
those famous companies of Rangers, who proved to 
be the most terrible band of partisan warriors in 
America. They were commanded by Rogers, and 
by the two brothers, John and William Stark. 
They were accustomed to the signs of the forest, 
and could read the slightest indications of ap- 
proaching danger. To scour the woods ; to pro- 
cure intelligence; to skirmish with detached parties 
of the enemy ; to hang on the wings of a retiring 
army and harass them ; to issue suddenly from 
their lurking-places, fall upon foraging parties, and 
retreat into inaccessible places — these were some 
of the duties of the rangers. On the most diffi- 
cult, hazardous and dangerous enterprises they 
were sent. When it became necessary for Gen- 
eral Amherst to send orders from Albany to Gen- 
eral Murray, at Ciuebec, Rogers was commanded 
to select four of his rangers, " who could be re- 
lied upon, and were used to scouting in an enemy's 
wilderness," to carry the orders. They were all, 



198 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, to a man, fit for the crisis, and there was no difFi- 
JJ^ culty in finding the four men. Shute, and three 
others, were commissioned, and undertook the per- 
ilous enterprise. They were landed at Missisqui 
Bay, and directed their course to the river St. 
Francis, by a route previously known to them. 
This river, after some days and nights of suffering, 
they crossed on rafts ; but not without losing two 
}Jp4' of the party, who were carried over the rapids. 
^oi.i.; The remaining two pursued their route, procured 
^note*' supplies by robbing the French planters on the 
way, until they reached an English encampment 
on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Here they 
were received as friends, and forwarded to (Quebec, 
where they arrived in a few days, and delivered 
their despatches to General Amherst. 
1757. For the reduction of the strong fortress of 
Crown Point another expedition was planned by 
Lord Loudon, the next year. Another regiment 
was raised in New Hampshire, commanded by 
Colonel Meserve ; who, with three companies of 
rangers and a body of one hundred carpenters, 
marched to Halifax, while the remainder of his 
regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Goffe, was 
posted at fort William Henry, under the command 
of Colonel Munroe, of the thirty-fifth British regi- 
Ai<g. 3. ment. On the third of August, the Marquis de 
Montcalm, at the head of a strong force of Cana- 
dians and Indians, invested that fort. For five 
days the garrison withstood the siege ; but on the 
sixth, finding their ammunition exhausted, they 
capitulated. They were allowed the honors of 
war, and were to be escorted by the French troops 
to fort Edward, on the shores of lake George. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 199 

Accordingly, on the morning aflcr the surrender, chap 

the signal of departure was given, and the garrison, 

to the number of three thousand, marched out of ^"" ^" 
the fort. The New Hampshire regiment, happen- 
ing to be in the rear, was the last to depart. Tlie 
Indians of the French army were enraged at the 
terms of surrender, as they afforded to them no 
opportunity for plunder. As the English issued 
from the fort they were observed to hover near, 
with evident signs of discontent, a few of them 
mingling from time to time among the conquered 
columns. The French soldiers, placed at a re- 
spectful distance to the right, offered no insult to 
the vanquished. As the English army proceeded 
slowly across the plain, accumulated numbers of 
the Indians pressed into their lines and began to 
plunder. While no opposition was made, they 
proceeded quietly in the work. But as soon as 
resistance was offered, the fatal war-whoop was 
sounded, and the Indians rushed with fiendlike 
fury upon the defenceless troops. They butchered 
and scalped their victims, mingling their triumph- 
ant yells with the groans of the dying, whom 
they were permitted to murder without restraint. 
Although it had been expressly stipulated that the 
prisoners should be protected from the savages by 
a guard, and the sick and wounded treated with 
humanity, yet no guard was provided. Monroe 
rushed through the French ranks to Montcalm, at 
the risk of his life, and implored him to fulfil this 
stipulation for a guard. All his entreaties were 
ineffectual. The French were passive spectators 
of the work of death, and no movement was made 
for protection, although they were near enough to 



200 HISTORY OF 

hear tlie shrieks of the wounded and to see the 
sick shrinking from the upHfted tomahawk. The 

1757. blood-thirsty savages seemed to be heated and 
maddened beyond their usual ferocity. Out of the 
New Hampshire regiment alone eighty were killed 
or taken ; and hundreds more were left dead upon 
the shores of "The Holy Lake" — their bodies 
unburied and mangled with all the wantonness of 
Indian barbarity. History may well be in some 
doubt what station to assign to Montcalm — wheth- 
er to rank him with those at once brave and hu- 
mane, or with those whose deeds of cruelty and 
blood tarnish the lustre of victory. 

Thus closed the third campaign in America. It 
had been a series of disasters, originating in mis- 
management and folly. The people of England 
were indignant, and demanded a new ministry, at 
the head of whom was placed the celebrated Wil- 
liam Pitt, who rose from the post of ensign in the 
guards to control the destinies of England. In 
nothing was his genius more conspicuous than in 
his selection of men to fill important stations. He 
immediately presented to his majesty " a long and 
melancholy list of lieutenant-generals and major- 
generals" to be removed; and he promoted to im- 
portant posts of command a crowd of meritorious 
young officers, among whom were Amherst, Wolfe, 
Monckton,* Murray and Townsend. A new vigor 
was immediately apparent, and the English fleets 
and armies seemed once more inspired with their 
ancient love of glory. A powerful force took 

1758. Louisburg from the French, with its garrison of 
five thousand men, and one hundred and twenty 

* Horatio Gates, afterwards the conqueror of Burgoyne, was aid to ^loncktorT. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 201 

pieces of cannon. But among the slain was chap. 

Col. Meserve, of Portsmouth, a gallant officer, and .^ ..^ 

lamented throughout the province. Gen. Forbes 
gained possession of fort Du Cluesne, and General 
Abcrcrombie advanced at the head of a third army, 
which included eight hundred New Hampshire 
men, to attack the strong fortress of Ticonderoga. 
He passed down the lake in a jfleet of a thousand 
boats. After landing, Rogers' rangers were not ^|j'" 
long in engaging the enemy in a skirmish. The P' '°^" 
next day the whole army moved to attack the 
French lines. But a murderous fire of artillery 
and small arms compelled them to retreat, after 
four hours of desperate fighting, with the loss of 
two thousand killed and wounded. The English 
lamented the loss of Lord Howe among the killed; 
and the whole country was clad in mourning for 
so many sons slain. Notwithstanding the bloody 
defeat at Ticonderoga, the British government 
determined to act with decision ; and the minister, 
Pitt, marked out a plan for the next campaign. Hales 
indicative of the energy and boldness of his genius, u. s., 
Three armies were to be led simultaneously p-2i3. 
against the three strongest posts of the French in 
America — Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Cluebec. 

Wolfe, though young, yet already considered a 
hero, with a fleet and eight thousand soldiers, was 
to ascend the St. Lawrence and attack duebec. 
Amherst, with twelve thousand men, was to take 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and having sub- 
dued the fortresses of lake Champluin, he was to pun- 
enler the St. Lawrence by the Sorel and form a n'iX% 
junction with the army below, under Wolfe. A "vorky 
third force, principally provincials, under General \'oi. i.' 
26 



202 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Prideaux, accompanied by the warlike Iroquois, 
1 was to take fort Niagara, descend the St. Law- 
rence, and make themselves masters of Montreal. 
Whether this plan was well designed to distract 
the enemy and accomplish the great object of con- 
quest, or depended for success upon the fortune of 
Wolfe, against probabilities, it is difficult to con- 
jecture. 

After a short siege, Niagara surrendered to 
General Prideaux. In the army of General Am- 
herst were a thousand men of New Hampshire, 
led by a brother of the lamented Captain Love- 
well. On the approach of Amherst, late in July, 
Ticonderoga was immediately abandoned by the 
French. Amherst pressed forward to take Crown 
Point, which he found deserted, and immediately 
pursued the retiring French to Isle aux Noix. 
After a series of efforts against the storms of lake 
Champlain, he became convinced that it was im- 
possible to take this place, and led back his army 
to Crown Point. The expedition against Quebec 
was more daring than the others, and its success 
1759. more splendid. The danger of the enterprise 
seemed to elevate the British soldiers to a level 
with the difficulties to be encountered ; and the 
battle w hich sealed the fate of the two gallant com- 
manders, Wolfe and Montcalm, gave success to 
England, but equal glory to the French arms. 
The city of Cluebec, the strong capital of Canada, 
the Gibraltar of America, and hitherto deemed an 
impregnable fortress, fell before the daring young 
generals whom Pitt promoted over their imbecile 
predecessors ; but both of the contending armies 
had much to regret, since the one mourned for 
Wolfe, the other for Montcalm. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 203 

The French being conquered, leisure was given chap. 

to chastise the Indians of the St. Francis. During , .^ 

the war, while the fighting men had been absent ^^'^^• 
against the French, these Indians seized the op- 
portunity for devastation, and murdered without 
restraint. But the dreaded rangers were now at 
liberty. Two hundred of these trained warriors, 
armed with tomahawks and knives, besides their 
usual equipments, led by Major Rogers, left 
Crown Point in September, and directed their Sept. 
course to St. Francis. After a fatiguing march 
of twenty-one days through the wilderness, they 
came within sight of the village of St. Francis, and 
viewed it at the distance of three miles. Major 
Rogers halted with his men, and in the evening 
entered the village in disguise, accompanied by 
two officers. He found the Indians engaged in 
a grand dance. Late in the night, as they all 
fell asleep, Rogers returned to his men, formed 
them into parties, which he posted to advantage, 
and, just before day, marched to a general assault. 
The Indians were completely surprised. They 
were wakened from sleep to meet the same wea- 
pons which they had so often plunged into the 
bosoms of unoffending women and children of the 
frontiers. Some were killed in their houses, and 
those who attempted to flee were tomahawked by 
parties who had been stationed to guard all the 
paths that led to the village. 

The dawn of day disclosed to the victorious as- 1759. 
sailants the sight of several hundred scalps of their 
countrymen, which the Indians had brought home 
and elevated upon poles. They found the village 
filled with the plunder of the frontiers, and enriched 



204 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, by the sale of captives. The houses of the French, 

Vlil . . 

,^ 1 who had mingled with the Indians, were well fur- 

i^ap, nished — the church adorned with plate. The 
^'^^^' rangers loaded themselves with pillage, and, hav- 
ing set fire to the village, directed their retreat 
up the river St. Francis, intending to rendezvous 
at the upper Coos. Only one had been killed and 
six wounded in the attack ; but their retreat was 
whiton, attended with distressinnr reverses. They directed 

p. 105. O J 

their march, passing on the eastern side of Lake 
Memphremagog, towards the mouth of the Am- 
monoosuck. They had not proceeded far, before 
their provisions were entirely exhausted. Their 
situation was such as might daunt the stoutest 
hearts. They were in the midst of a trackless 
wilderness, many miles from any human habita- 
tion, with a blood-thirsty, savage foe pressing upon 
their rear. That they might procure subsistence 
with less difficulty, by hunting, they separated into 
small parties. Two of these parties were soon 
overtaken by the Indians and slain, or made pris- 
oners. The commander, with the main body, 
famished and march-worn, finally arrived at the 
mouth of the Ammonoosuck, where they expected 
to find an abundant supply of provisions. But 
Whiton, they were cruelly disappointed. The party en- 
^' ""■ trusted with the provisions had departed but a few 
hours before they arrived, leaving their fires still 
burning. Guns were fired to recall them, which 
1759. they distinctly heard ; but supposing them to be 
fired by an enemy, they kept on their march down 
the river. The rangers were now reduced to the 
last extreme of suflfering. They were entirely 
destitute of provisions, and seventy miles from 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 206 

Number Four,* the nearest place of relief. 
Ground-nuts and beech-nuts were the only provi- 
sions of the forest. To such extremities were they p. "0*5"' 
reduced, that they boiled their powder-horns and 
all their leathern accoutrements, that they might 
taste something ever so slightly tinctured with ani- 
mal matter. As a last expedient, Rogers, with 
two others, by the slow process of burning down whkon, 
trees, constructed a raft, with which they floated 
down Connecticut river to Charlestown, and de- 
spatched canoes up the river, laden with provisions. 
But ere they could reach the starving rangers, fifty 
had fallen by the hands of the enemy, or perished in 
the w^oods, of hunger, exhaustion and despair. One 
manf left the main body to seek out his father's 
house on the banks of the Merrimac, by a nearer 
route. The hunters afterwards found his skeleton 
in the wilderness of the White Mountains. 

Early in the ensuing spring, the French, having 1760. 
concentrated their remaining forces at Montreal, i.^p.' 
made attempts to regain possession of Quebec. 
Unsuccessful in these, they retired to Montreal. But 
this year witnessed the completion of the conquest 
of Canada. Three British armies, penetrating 
the wilderness by different routes, arrived almost 
simultaneously at Montreal. Eight hundred troops, 
under Colonel Goffe, marched from New Hamp- 
shire, and formed part of the forces concentrated 
round Montreal. The French found it impossible 
to resist the newly-awakened energy of the British 
ministry and their armies. Montreal surrendered, 
and the other French posts, in rapid succession, fell 
into the power of the English. The tragic scenes 

* Charlestown. f Benj. Bradley, of Concord. 



206 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of Indian warfare ended with the reduction of 
J^ Canada, and the terrific war-whoop of the savage, 
which had been heard for so many years, ceased 
to resound through the forests and the settlements. 
The Indians passed under the dominion of Britain. 
Her brave armies had encircled her name with 
glory, and added extensive territories to her domin- 
ions. But, in doing this, three hundred and twenty 
L^p.' millions of dollars had been added to the national 
1763. debt, already overwlielming. A definitive treaty of 
peace, signed at Paris in 1763, closed this long and 
tremendous struggle. France had lost all her 
North American colonies. For this splendid suc- 
cess, England was indebted to the energy of the 
government, the blood and treasure of her own 
people, and the powerful aid of the American 
colonists. Some of her bravest officers had fallen. 
From the time of the conquest of Canada may 
be dated the more rapid progress of New Hamp- 
shire in wealth, and a greater increase of population. 
While exposed to continual danger from the savage 
tribes of the St. Francis, the growth of the settle- 
ments had been stinted and circumscribed. 

During the war, other affairs of the colony had 
been overlooked in the absorbing pursuit of arms. 
Yet the colony had advanced in morals and intelli- 
gence. A printing-press, the first in New Eng- 
land, had been established in Portsmouth, and the 
New Hampshire Gazette* had been issued in the 
October following. The conquest of Canada was 
the signal for the speedy downfall of the Indians. 

* The Portsmouth Journal, at Portsmouth, was established in 1789 ; the 
• Keene Sentinel in March, 1799, and the Farmer's Cabinet, at Amherst, Nov. 
11, 1802. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 207 

Neither the degenerate Iroquois, who had fought chap. 

as allies of Britain in the conquest of Canada, nor _1 

the western savages, who had followed the fortunes 
of France, saw that peace would be fatal to them. 
Yet this was inevitable. When the white men 
ceased from the work of destroying each other, 
they would naturally turn to exterminating the red 
race, who now sought, fortunately too late, for the 
means of staying the irresistible progress of a 
superior people. Scarcely had the red warriors 
raised a shout of barbarous triumph, when they 
were called upon to resist the aggression of those 1760. 
for whom they had bled in the recent wars. It 
would have been the same in the event of French 
conquest. Contention between two rival nations, 
claiming the soil of Canada, put a stop to that colo- 
nization which drove the red men away ; but the 
strife being ended, the victorious party, who had 
dispossessed its rival, would turn to the only re- 
maining obstacle, and pursue with a double zeal 
the work of exterminating the native inhabitants of 
the wilderness. The Indians awoke suddenly to a 
perception of the danger impending, and formed, 
with astonishing rapidity, a combination for exter- 
minating the whites. There was a simultaneous 
rush of the Indians from all quarters upon the out- 
posts, which in some instances were carried; but 
hostilities were finally terminated by compelling 
the Indian to submit to the power of the white 
man. 

While the wars continued with the French and 
Indians, numerous bodies of troops passed and 
repassed through the green and fertile country 
now ^"own as the state of Vermont. The soldiers 



:li)0 HISTORY OF 

'HAP. perceived the fertility of the soil, and immediately 

,-^ upon the cessation of hostilities a great crowd of 

adventurers and speculators made application for 
these lands. Applications increased, and the sur- 
veys were extended so rapidly, that, during the 
1761. year 1761, not less than sixty townships were 
granted on the west, and eighteen on the east side 
of the river. The governor's coffers were filled by 
1763. the fees ; and scarcely had two years more elapsed 
before the number of townships on the west side 
of the river amounted to one hundred and thirty- 
eight. A stream of emigration poured northward 
from Charlestown to Lancaster and Northumber- 
land ; and settlements were soon extended to Clare- 
whi- mont and Piainficld, Lebanon, Hanover, Lyme, 
109. Orford, Newport, Lempster, Alstead, and Mar- 
low. At the same time new settlements stretched 
along the Merrimac, and up the Pemigewasset, 
over the western parts of Hillsborough and Mer- 
rimac counties, the eastern sections of Cheshire 
and Sullivan, and the northern part of Strafford. 
The passion for occupying new lands seemed 
hardly exceeded by the passion for granting them. 
The soldiers, to whom they had been promised as 
a reward for their meritorious services in conquer- 
ing the country from France, were forgotten in 
the hasty covetousness of an avaricious governor. 
Wentworth retained five hundred acres of land in 
each town to himself The grants on the western 
side of the Connecticut alarmed the government 
of New York, who claimed the soil, under the grant 
of King Charles to the Duke of York, as far east- 
ward as Connecticut river. The emoluments of 
granting lands were coveted by the governor of 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 209 

New York. The grasping selfishness of these chap. 
two royal governors produced a disaffection, which .,_^ 
portended civil war, and would soon have led to it, voLI^' 
if the stamp act had not absorbed every other con- &'.Bei"- 
sideration, and called the " Sons of Liberty" to S 
consider the general defence and welfare, rather 
than conflicting rights founded upon royal grants. 
On the application of New York, an order was 
passed by the king in council, declaring "the 
western banks of Connecticut river, from where it j^g^ 
enters the province of Massachusetts Bay, as far July 20, 
north as the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to be the 
boundary line between the two provinces of New 
Hampshire and New York." The settlers now 
found themselves involved in a controversy with 
the government of New York. The grantees of 
the lands understood the words to be in the future 
tense, (their obvious meaning,) and consequently 
believed that their grants, derived from the crown 
through one of its governors, were valid. The 
government of New York referred these words 
to the time past, and construed them as a declara- 
tion that the banks of the Connecticut always 
had been the eastern limit of New York ; con- 
sequently, that .the grants made by New Hampshire tnapV- 
were invalid, and might be granted again. These 
opposite opinions proved a cause of Htigation, 
enmity, and frequently of open fight, which lasted 
for ten years. It was but natural that the settlers, 
threatened by New York with having their lands 
wrested from them, should think of independence 
and self-protection. Such the sequel will prove. 
They were at this time a hardy and intrepid, but 
uncultivated race of men. Without the advan- 
27 




210 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, tastes of education, destitute of the conveniences 

VTTT o 

and elegancies of life, with nothing to soften their 
manners, and strongly provoked by injustice, rash- 
ness, excess and violence naturally marked their 
proceedings. An equal extreme of ferocity, though 
graced with the name of law, marked the doings of 
the New York government, when they proceeded to 
brand the Vermontcrs as felons, traitors, and rebels, 
and offered rewards for their discovery and appre- 
hension. Posterity will easily decide which was 
most blamable, the greedy governor of New York, 
who gave a forced construction to plain words, in 
order to make laws to dispossess honest settlers, 
or the settlers, who, when pursued and hunted as 
criminals for acting in open and avowed opposition 
to the wrong with which they were threatened. 
Hist. of declared, "We will kill and destroy any person 
^v^^ or persons whomsoever that shall presume to be 
'^^e' accessory, aiding or assisting in taking any of us." 
Both parties remained in this state of exasperation 
until the drama of the Revolution opened at Lex- 
ington, and the attention of all orders of men was 
immediately engaged, and all local and provincial 
contests absorbed, by the novelty, the grandeur and 
importance of the contest between Britain and 
America. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

Administration of Pitt — Taxation — Stamp act — Duties — Debates in Parlia- 
ment — Excitement occasioned by the stamp act — Stamp distributor at 
Portsmouth compelled to resign — Riots in other colonies — Threatened 
destruction of tea at Portsmouth — Removal of Gov. Wentworthj and ap- 
pointment of John "Wentworth — Assault upon fort William and Mary, 
led by Langdon and Sullivan — Ammunition and cannon removed by the 
provincials — Battle of Concord and Lexington — A convention called at 
Exeter — Governor Wentworth recommends reconciliation — Royal gov- 
ernment dissolved in New Hampshire — Boston besieged b)'^ the provin- 
cials — Battle of Bunker's Hill— Death of Warren and McClary — Whigs 
and tories — Formation of a state government in New Hampshire — 
Adoption of a constitution — Meshech Ware, president — New Hampshire 
fits out a ship of war — Land forces — Expedition to Canada — Sullivan 
meets the army retreating — New Hampshire resolves on a declaration of 
independence — Public sentiment — Burgoyne advances into Vermont — 
Battles of Bennington and Stillwater — General Sullivan's expedition to 
Rhode Island — Surrender of Cornwallis — Great Britain acknowledges 
the independence of the United Colonies — Washington retires to IMount 
Vernon. 



The administration of William Pitt shed an chap. 
undying glory upon the name of England. In ,^,1.^ 
every quarter of the world the British flag was 
triumphant. Nor was it the least of those splen- 
did events, which gave eclat to the administration 
of Pitt, that the French had been defeated and 
driven from their possessions in America. All the 
colonies had passed under the dominion of Great 
Britain. Such was the success and the glory of 
England, under the guidance of Pitt. Rising 
from an island in the midst of the sea, she bad 



212 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, grown to a nation able to threaten the repose and 

;^ liberty of Europe. Space seemed to set no limits 

to her ambition. Resting upon her American 
colonies in the West, and her East India posses- 
sions in the East, she seemed to touch the extremi- 
ties of the globe, and to grasp at universal domin- 
ion. By the treaty of Paris, of 1763, she became 
mistress of the vast continent of North America, 
from the banks of the Mississippi to the shores of 
Greenland. She also gained many islands in the 
West Indies. In the East her empire was greatly 
extended ; and so vast was her power, and so solid 
the foundations on which it rested, that her com- 
merce and her arms reigned without a rival and 
without control. Aspiring to rule the sea, she 
became to all the powers of Europe, and espe- 
cially to the maritime states, the object of universal 
umbrage and distrust. All nations desired to see 
her humbled. Holland, and the other maritime 
states, whose commerce she had harassed, ardent- 
ly wished to see lier power reduced. Above all, 
France, martial France, stung with her recent 
discomfiture — burning to avenge her defeated le- 
gions — ardently desired to humble her great adver- 
sary, and waited, with impatient longing, for an 
opportunity to repair her losses and reconquer her 
lost glory. 

The powers of Europe could not injure England 
more effectually than by separating from her the 
American colonies. The Americans could there- 
fore hope, in case of a rupture, for at least an al- 
liance with France. It is not strange that they 
began to reflect upon what they were capable of 
achieving, and to consider themselves no longer in 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 213 

a state of infancy, but a nation strong and formi- chap. 
dable of itself, and to ask by what right a distant — 1^ 
island should assume to rule an immense and pop- 
ulous continent. To the most sagacious minds it 
was already apparent that America must, in the 
natural order of events, be free ; and that it de- 
pended on the policy of the British ministry to 
hasten or stay the progress of freedom. Although 
a conciliatory policy on the part of the British 
ministry might retard the march of independence, 
yet, in any event, the Americans could not fail to 
accomplish their destiny. But though the col- 
onies felt their importance and their power, there 
was,, as yet, no appearance of discontent or dis- 
loyalty. By avoiding all irritating measures,* the 
mother country might still have hoped to keep 
the Americans attached to the same government 
under which they had been conducted to their 
present prosperous and flourishing condition. 

They had submitted to a system of commercial 
monopoly, directly calculated to benefit England, 
ever since the year 1660.| They had been pro- 
hibited from purchasing the manufactures of any 
other part of the world. They had been obliged 
to carry to England all the products of their lands 
— even the fleeces of their flocks. They were for- 
bidden to buy the productions or manufactures of 
any European nation, until these commodities had 
first been carried into an English port. At all this 
the colonies discovered no resentment. They were 
willing to contribute to the prosperity of the moth- 
er country, in return for her protection and the 

* New Hampshire Gazelle of Nov. 10, ]7f)9. 

t Bolta's History of the War of Independence, I., p. 21. 



214 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, succors of troops and ships she had sent them to 
J5_ defend against the attacks of savage tribes, and 
against the encroachments of foreign powers. Yet 
it was not without a silent dissatisfaction that 
they submitted to laws,* which, though not im- 
posing taxes, yet in a thousand ways restricted 
their commerce, impeded their manufactures,! and 
wounded their self-love. Some of the acts of 
parliament seemed to point directly towards vas- 
salage and degradation. Hatters were forbidden 
to have, at one time, more than two apprentices. 
An act of parliament had prohibited the felling of 
pitch and white pine trees. Hats and woollens of 
domestic manufacture could not be exported from 
the colonies, nor introduced from one colony to 
another. At the instance of the English sugar 
colonies, sugar, rum, and molasses could not be 
imported from the French and Dutch settlements 
in North America, without paying a duty so 
exorbitant that it amounted almost to a prohibi- 
tion. Finally, by an act of parliament of 1750, 
the manufacture of steel and of certain iron works 
was forbidden to be executed in the American col- 
onies. From these laws arose the first murmurs 
of discontent! on the part of the colonists. But 
to these they submitted, yet, not without repug- 
nance. They were regarded as regulations of 
commerce. They passed under the name of regu- 
lations of commerce, and excited no open opposi- 
tion. But during all this time, and until the year 
1764, the subject of taxing the colonies by author- 

* Botta, I., p. 25. f Portsmouth Town Records, vol. II. 

:j: N. H. Gazette, Nov. 27, 1767— Dec. 11 and 2\, 17*57— Jan. 15, 22, 29— 
Feb. 12, 19, 26— March 11, IS, 176S. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 215 

ity of parliament, slept in silence. But England chap 
was now in want of a revenue. Under the splen- .^J^ 
did administration of Pitt, she had gained, by a 
series of brilliant successes, both by land and sea, 
an enormous increase of territory and strength. 

It is here to be observed, that, in gaining this 
greatness, in which England exulted, and which 
made her the envy and fear of Europe, she had 
contracted a vast national debt ; and it was to dis- 
charge the debt incurred by her aggrandizement, 
that gave rise to the project of taxing the colonies. 
In this debt the expense incurred by the conquest 
of Canada was an important item. The expenses 
of this war had added more than three hundred 
millions to the national debt. The colonists 
were mainly benefited by this, although it was 
mainly the work of their own hands ; and it seem- 
ed but reasonable to England, that the colonists 
should share some portion of the burden of indebt- 
edness which bore so heavily upon the mother 
country. 

It was asked in England, " Are they not a rich, 
happy and enterprising people? Is not their pros 
perity known and envied by the whole world? 
Assuredly, if there is any part of the globe where 
man enjoys a sweet and pleasant life, it is espe- 
cially in English America. Is not this a striking 
proof of the indulgence of England towards her 
colonies? Let the Americans compare their con- 
dition with that of foreign colonists, and they 
would soon confess, not without gratitude to the 
mother country, both their real felicity and the 
futility of their complaints."* 

♦Botta, I., p.2S, 



216 HISTORY OF 

England, at this time, became jealous of the col- 
onies, and began to suspect, by degrees, that they 
were shaking off the authority of the crown. It 
is not improbable, too, that some far-seeing men 
among the Americans, aspiring to loftier things, 
had formed in the secret of their hearts the idea 
of independence, and as they watched the storm 
gathering at a distance, were preparing for the 
emergency. Such was the state of England and 
America — the one claiming that she was justly 
possessed of a power which the other considered 
mere tyrannical usurpation, and to which they 
could not submit without degrading themselves to 
a state of slavery. Such being the condition of 
things, it was not difficult to predict that, without 
a change of opinion on the one side or the other, 
a contest must arise ; and if the power of the one 
party could not force submission from the other, 
a separation must ensue. 

Meanwhile, the enormous duties on molasses* 
and sugar introduced an almost universal contra- 
band in these articles. The increase of smuggling 
was in proportion to that of commerce. To put a 
stop to this, the courts in the colonies were au- 
thorized to grant writs of assistance. These were 
a general search-warrant given by the courts to 
the custom-house officers, empowering them to 
search for and seize these articles, wherever they 
supposed them to be concealed. In Boston, 
opposition to these became violent ; and it was 
maintaining this opposition which called out the 
impetuous eloquence of James Otis. His genius 

* N. H. Gazette, May 6, 1778. Also through jMarch, April, IMay and June 
of the same year. 



1 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 217 

had manifestod itself before, and its li<^ht afforded chap. 

TV" 

a hope on which America dwelt in silence, till the .____ 
moment of action should arrive. On this occasion 
his eloquence burst out like a flame of fire. 
Crowded audiences thronged to hear him, and 
*' every itnan," says John Adams, "went away 
ready to take arms. Then and there was the first 
scene of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great 
Britain. Then and there American Independence 
w^as born." 

Exasperated at the enormous duties imposed,* 
the inhabitants, with one accord, resolved to 
renounce the use of every article produced frorti 
the manufactories or from the soil of England. 
English cloths were supplanted by those of domes- 
tic manufacture.! English gloves ceased to be 
worn — and even funerals began to be celebrated „ 

. . Eotta, 

without the habiliments of mourning. The richest p- 34. 
inhabitants promptly abstained from every article 
of luxury, and returned to the simplicity of early 
times. Indeed, so generally did the inhabitants 
concur in this,| that in the town of Boston alone, 
in the year 1764, the consumption of British mer- ,„/»^ 
chandise was diminished upwards of ten thousand 
pounds sterling. The resolutions taken against 
British manufactures were now becoming general. 
Combinations to this effect were entered into in all 
the principal cities in America, and were observed 
with astonishing fidelity. Such an interruption to 
commerce was extremely prejudicial to England ; 

* N. H. Gazette, 1768, April 8, 15, 22, 29— May 6. Ibid. Nov. 27, 17C7, 

t Botta, I., p. 31. 

X Tlie N. H. Gazette urges the people to dispense vith superfluities, and 
practise econoni}', for the sake of liberty and their country. See N. II. Gaz. 
Dec. 29, 1769, article signed "Consideration." 

28 



218 



HISTORY OF 



CHAP, for the colonies had annually purchased to the 
^,1^ value of three millions sterling. This trade was 
lost, and the public revenues suffered materially. 

This result greatly annoyed and irritated the 
British ministry. They now revolved in their 
minds a design far more lucrative to England and 
more prejudicial to the colonies. This was to im- 
pose taxes or excises by acts of parliament. The 
power of England was so vast at this time, that 
it was thought impossible for America or the 
world to resist her will ; and there were some 
plausible arguments in favor of taxation. The 
public debt at this time amounted to the prodi- 
gious sum of one hundred and forty-eight millions 
sterling. It was, therefore, necessary to draw as 
much as possible from every possible source of 
revenue. The people of England were grievously 
burdened with taxes ! "And shall our colonies," 
said they, " enjoy the magnificence of princes, 
while we must drudge and consume ourselves with 
efforts to procure a scanty subsistence?" Ameri- 
can affluence had been painted in vivid colors, 
and the ministry no longer doubted that it was 
1764 t^xpedient and necessary to tax the colonies. Ac- 
Botta, cordingly, on the 10th of March, 1764,* the cele- 
brated Stamp Act was introduced into parliament 
in the form of a resolution. The effect of this 
act was to require all notes, bonds, marriage con- 
tracts, and all legal instruments in the colonies, to 
be executed upon stamped paper, on which a duty 
was to be paid. For more than a year this reso- 
lution remained a mere proposition, unaccompanied 
by any act to carry it into effect. No sooner did 

* Parliamentary Debates of 1765. Commons, p. 21. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 219 

the news of this intended tax reach America, than chap. 

IX. 

it spread everywhere through the country and _.l->^ 
occasioned the most violent fermentation. All 
were of one mind in asserting that parliament had 
no right to tax the colonies. On what ground did 
this asserted right rest ? Was it because England 
had expended money in the French war ? Why 
should the colonies pay the expenses of that war ? 
It was not brought on by America. It was a 
quarrel between England and France, in which 
the colonies had no share. Their country fur- 
nished a theatre for it — their blood and treasure 
flowed freely to assist the mother country. Was 
it because England had sent men and ships to 
protect the Americans against savage tribes ? 
She had been more than repaid for that by the 
profits of American commerce. Was it because 
parliament possessed authority to raise money for 
the crown ? The Americans were not represented 
in parliament. " Taxation and representation," 
said they — adopting the language of Pitt — " are 
inseparable." The more they reasoned, the more 
they became exasperated. Attachment and loy- 
alty rapidly turned to hatred and distrust. Every 
day widened the breach between the two coun- 
tries. Every hour diminished the affection of the 
Americans, and rendered more apparent the incon- 
sistency that they should be governed by a nation 
more than three thousand miles off, from whom 
they were separated by a wide ocean, and in 
whose legislative enactments they had neither a 
vote nor a voice. 

But the ministry were not to be intimidated. 
In defiance of the most solemn warnings, and the 



220 HISTORYOF 

CHAP, visible signs of an approaching retribution, they 

obstinately persisted, and accordingly the question 

of the stamp act came up on its final passage in 
1765. parliament, early in the session of 1765.* It was 
but natural that a period of delusive splendor, like 
that which England had just passed through, should 
be followed by one of corresponding disaster and 
gloom. It will be readily anticipated that the dis- 
cussion of this subject caused a violent shock of 
Bona, opinions in parliament. Indeed, the eyes of all 
1-42-3. Europe were turned to watch the progress and 
decision of this question ; and it would be difficult 
to find, either in the history of times past or present, 
that there has been displayed more vigor of intel- 
lect, more love of country, more violence of party 
spirit, or more splendor of eloquence, than in these 
debates. The cause of America was not without 
advocates in parliament. The first men of the 
age were ready to espouse the American side. 
163-3' ^hJ^c the cause of the government was ably vin- 
dicated by the skilful eloquence of Weddeburne, 
the majestic sense of Thurlow, and the masterly 
dexterity of Lord North, the cause of the Ameri- 
cans employed the lively declamation of Barre, 
and the philosophic fancy of Burke. Dunning, 
famous for legal acuteness, and Fox, for argumen- 
tative vehemence, were on the American side. 
Above all these rose the venerable form of Pitt,t 
his tones solemn and sincere, as was befitting a 
great man about to leave the world. 

" These Americans — our own children," ex- 
claimed the minister Grenville, " planted by our 
cares, nourished by our indulgence, protected by 

* Pari. Debates, 1765. t Earl of Chatham. 



NEW HAMrSIIIRE. 221 

our arms, until they are grown to a good degree ciiAr. 

of skill and opulence — will they now turn their .^ !_, 

backs upon us, and grudge to contribute their 
mite to relieve us from the heavy load which 
overwhelms us ?" 

Col. Barre caught the words, and boldly re- 
joined — ^^ Planted by your cares! No! your 
oppression planted them in America ; they fied 
from your tyranny, into a then uncultivated land, 
where they were exposed to almost all the hard- 
ships to which human nature is liable, and, among 
others, to the savage cruelty of the enemy of the 
country — a people the most subtle, and I take upon 
me to say, the most truly terrible, of any people 
that ever inhabited any part of God's earth ; and 
yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, 
they met all these hardships with pleasure, com- 
pared with those they suffered in their own coun- 
try from the hands of those that should have been 
their friends. 

" They nourished by your indulgence ! They 
grew by your neglect ; as soon as you began to 
care about them, that care was exercised in send- 
ing persons to rule over them in one department 
and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of 
some members of this house, sent to spy out their 
liberty, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey 
upon them ; men, whose behavior, on many occa- 
sions, had caused the blood of those sons of liberty 
to recoil within them ; men, })romoted to the high- 
est seats of justice, some of whom, to my knowl- 
edge, were glad, by going to foreign countries, to 
escape the vengeance of the laws in their own. 

*' They protected by your arms ! They have 



222 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted 
, 1_ their valor, amidst their constant and laborious in- 
dustry, for the defence of a country, whose fron- 
tiers while drenched in blood, its interior parts 
have yielded for your enlargement the little sav- 
' ings of their frugality and the fruits of their toils. 
And believe me, remeiinher, I this day told you so, 
that the same spirit which actuated that people at 
first, will continue with them still ; but prudence 
forbids me to explain myself any further. God 
knows, I do not, at this time, speak from motives 
of party heat ; what I assert proceeds from the 
sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, 
in general knowledge and experience, any one 
here may be, yet I claim to know more of Amer- 
ica, having seen, and been more conversant in that 
country. The people there are as truly loyal as 
any subjects the king has, but a people jealous of 
their liberties, and who will vindicate them if they 
should be violated." 

This bold speech left the house petrified with 
astonishment. A dead silence ensued, in which 
all continued to gaze on the speaker, without utter- 
ing a word. The right of parliament to tax the 
colonies called in question ! This was sufficient 
to make them act from jealousy of their contested 
authority, and the bill passed on the 7th of Feb- 
1765. ruary.* There were two hundred and fifty yeas, 
while the nays did not exceed fifty. fThe house of 
lords approved the bill on the 8th of March fol- 
lowing, and on the 22d of the same month, it was 
sanctioned by the king. The night on which the 
bill passed. Dr. Franklin, then in London, wrote 
to Charles Thompson: — "The sun of liberty is 

* Pari. DebateS; 17G5--0. t Pari- DebateSj 17Go--6. — Lords. 



x\EW HAMPSHIRE. 223 

set ; the Americans must light the lamps of indus- chap. 

try and economy." To which Mr. Thompson. . _!_ 

answered, " Be assured we shall light torches of 
quite another sort." 

It^is impossible to describe the ferment in the 
colonies* on the first report that the stamp act 
had become a law. On its arrival in America 
there was a general burst of indignation tlu^ough- 
out the colonies. f The house of burgesses of 
Virginia was then in session, and there tlie first 
opposition was made. The young and eloquent 
Patrick Henry was there. He pronounced it 1765. 
tyranny in the king to have sanctioned such an 
act; and, alluding to the fate of other tyrants, 
he exclaimed, " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I. 
his Cromwell, and George III." — here he was 
interrupted by the cry of treason ; pausing for 
a moment, he added — " may profit by the exam- 
ple. If that be treason, make the most of it." 
These were bold words — such as had not then 
been heard even from the boldest. The irresist- 
ible eloquence of Henry prevailed. Resolutions 
condemning the act were passed by a major- 
ity of a single voice. Simultaneously with these 
proceedings, and before they were known in Mas- 
sachusetts, the General Court of that colony had 
adopted measures of opposition, and proposed a 
Congress of States. This proposition was gene- 
rally agreed to, though it met with so much oppo- 
sition, that no delegates were elected from New 
Hampshire and Virginia, nor from North Carolina 

* New Hampshire Gazette, 1765—1766. 

t Prov. Rec, Jour. C. and A., 1765—1774. H., 1759—171)5. Portsmouth 
Town Records, vol. H. New Hampshire Gazette, 17135. 



224> HISTORY OF 

CHAP, and Gcori^ia; and on the first Tuesday of October 
_^__ delegates assembled at New York, from the States 
of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland and South Carolina. They drew up an 
address to the king and petitions to parliament, 
asking for redress of grievances. Meanwhile the 
day ai)proached when the stamp act was to take 
effect ; and it was to be seen whether America 
would resist, or whether she would submit to a 
law by which no debt could be collected, no ship 
put to sea, no apprentice indented, no marriage 
solemnizedj without payment of stamp duty. The 
popular feeling against it had greatly increased, 
and had spread everywhere. Indeed, the opposi- 
tion to it had become strong and systematic. The 
1765, women, animated by a zeal for liberty, united their 
exertions with the men. They cheerfully gave up 
the use of British goods, and even relinquished 
every species of ornament manufactured in Eng- 
land.* Everywhere tlie stamp act was treated 
with derision by the people. In New York it was 
carried about, attached to a death's-head, labelled, 
" The Folly of England and the Ruin of America." 
At Providence, in Rhode Island, the effigies of 
stamp officers were dragged, with halters about 
their necks, through the streets, hung to gibbets, 
and afterwards burnt. In Connecticut, also, effi- 
gies were carried through the ceremony of a mock 
trial and condemned in due form to be burnt. 
The stamp officers in Connecticut and in New 
York promptly resigned their offices. In Boston, 
the mob demolished the houses intended for stamp 

* Emma Wiliard's American Efpnblic, p. 119. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 225 

officers, and hung up the effigies of government chap. 
officers on the branches of an old chii on the com- ___!_ 
mon, which took the name of " the Tree of Lib- 
erty." In Maryland the principal stamp distrib- 
utor was menaced, and fled for refuge to New 
York. 

In New Hampshire George Meserve had been 
appointed stamp distributor. He received his 
appointment when in England, and soon after 
arrived in Boston. The people requested him to Sept. 9. 
resion his office before he landed. This he readily Bei- 

T knap, 

did.* They then welcomed him on shore. The p-ssi. 
news of his coming had preceded him to Ports- Sep. 12, 
mouth, and an exhibition of effigies had prepared 
the minds of the people to receive him. At his 
coming they assembled, and he was compelled to 1765. 
make a more formal resignation, on the parade, *^"" 
before gothg to his house. f The stamp act was Nov. i. 
to commence its operation on the first day of No- 
vember. On the last day of October the New oct.31. 
Hampshire Gazette appeared with a mourning 
border, and the next day was ushered in by the 
tolling of bells, and a mock funeral was made for 
the Goddess of Liberty. She is carried to the 
grave ; but on depositing her there, some signs of 
life are discovered, and she is borne off* in tri- 
umph, amid the acclamations of the multitude. 
Thus did the populace propagate the spirit of 
independence, while the more moderate and even 
the most eminent citizens testified their resistance 
by more discreet but not less decided demonstra- 
tions. Governor Went worth alone remained silent. 
With failing health and an ample fortune, and now 

* New Hampshire Gazette, Sept., 1765. f Ibid. 

29 



226 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, far in the decline of life, he felt equally averse to 
,__ putting liimself forward in the support of popular 
measures, or of contradicting openly the voice of 
the people. During these commotions, and while 
it was considered doubtful whether courts of law 
could enforce their decrees without the use of 
stamped paper, a few licentious persons endea- 
vored to excite a general opposition to the payment 
of debts. No sooner did this disorderly spirit 
manifest itself, than associations were formed at 
1765. Portsmouth, Exeter, and all the principal towns, to 
support the magistrates in compelling obedience 
to the courts and enforcing the obligations of con- 
tracts. This spirit of disorder was soon quelled. 
Thus did the people show that, though resisting 
oppression, they had within themselves the ele- 
ments of virtue and order. 

It was soon suspected, notwithstanding the 
resignation of Meserve, that he intended to distri- 
bute stamped paper. Instantly the drums beat, 
1766 and the Sons of Liberty were assembled. They 
Jan. 9. ^[^gj^ compelled him to deliver up his commission, 
which was put on board a ship, then ready to sail, 
and sent to England. It happened to arrive just 
at the time when the parliament had heard of the 
commotions in America, and when a strong effort 
was making by the friends of America to repeal 
the stamp act. A change had taken place in the 
British ministry, and the new ministers, among 
whom were the Marquis of Rockingham, the 
Duke of Grafton, and General Conway, were more 
favorable to the Americans. The petition of 
congress and other papers were before them. Dr. 
Franklin had been examined before the house of 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 221 

Commons, and had i^iven it as his opinion that chap. 

America would never submit to the stamp duty '^ 

unless compelled by force of arms. " My posi- 
tion," said William Pitt, "is this — I repeat it: 
I will maintain it to my last hour : — Taxation and 
representation are inseparable. This j^osition is 
founded on the laws of nature ; it is more — it is 
in itself an eternal laiv of nature ; for lohatever 
is a man's own, is absolutely his oicn : no man 
has a right to take itf'om him, without his con- 
sent ; tvhoever attemjjts to do it, attempts an 
injury ; ivhoever does it, commits a robbery. I lygg 
am of opinion that the stamp act ought to be 
repealed, totally, absolutely, and immediately." 
The repeal passed the Commons, and the cause 
of America having found an advocate in the person 
of Lord Camden, it prevailed in the house of 
Lords, and was finally repealed.* 

But the law requiring the colonies to maintain, 
at their own expense, the troops quartered amongst 
them, still remained ; and as this was considered 
an indirect mode of taxation, the same opposition 
was made to it. In July, another change of min- juiy, 
istry took place, and a cabinet was formed under ^'^^'^• 
the direction of Pitt. In May, 1767, a second 
plan was devised for taxation, by imposing duties 
on all tea, glass, paper, and painters' colors, im- 
ported into the colonies. All the bitter feelings 
engendered by the stamp act, now revived. Pe- 
titions and remonstrances poured into parliament. 
Meanwhile, an affray had taken place with the 
British troops in the streets of Boston, in which 

* There were great rejoicings at the repeal of the stamp act. See N. H. 
Gazette, January 2, 1767. 



228 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, four of the inhabitants were killed. This served 

IX 

to fan the flame of war, now rapidly rising. Not- 
withstanding the duties on importations were all 
soon repealed, with the exception of the duty on 
tea, still, while that remained, the right of parlia- 
ment to tax the colonies was not relinquished. 

Committees of correspondence, those nurseries 
of liberty, were now organized in all the principal 
towns throughout the colonies, and produced a 
complete concert of action. The ships of the 
East India Company, laden with tea, were now 
arriving in the American ports. If it landed, the 
duties must be paid ; and it was determined not to 
permit it to land. Accordingly, in Boston, reso- 
lutions were adopted that it should be sent back 
to England in the same vessels in which it came. 
Similar resolves were passed in Philadelphia and 
New York. But the merchants, to whom the tea 
had been consigned in Boston, refused to grant 
the necessary discharges, and the ships tarried in 
the harbor. Apprehensive that the obnoxious 
article would be landed, the people resolved to 
destroy it, and in the night a band of citizens, dis- 
guised as Indians, boarded the ships, broke open 
their chests, and emptied their contents into the 
sea. 

J767 In New Hampshire, Governor Wentworth had 
been removed by the British ministry, on charges 
of neglect of duty, and his nephew, John Went- 

Aug. worth, appointed governor. He was a favorite of 
the people, had been active in procuring a repeal 
of the stamp act, and was appointed by the minis- 
try through whom it was repealed. Through the 
influence of his principal friends, he prevented the 



n. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 229 

adoption of a non-importation agreement in Ports- chap. 
mouth. " We cannot depend on the countenance .— -i^ 
of many persons of the first rank here," said the 
Sons of Liberty; "for royal commissions and 
family connexions influence the principal gentle- 
men among us at least to keep silence in these evil 
times." But the support which the cause of 
England gained in New Hampshire fell far short 
of the sanguine hopes of the governor and his 
friends. It was evident that he was fast losing his 
popularity. The majority were on the side of 
liberty. As the crisis approached, the union 
became more general. Those who felt disposed 
to advocate the cause of England, from fear of the 
popular hatred and derision, either became silent, 
or were forced by the strong current of public 
opinion to espouse the popular cause ; so that j^^^ 
when the first cargo of tea arrived in Portsmouth, 
it required all the prudence of Governor Went- 
worth, all the vigilance of the magistrates, all 
the firmness of the friends of order, to send 
away the hateful commodity without a tumult.* jnne25. 
A town meeting was called, and it was pro- 
posed to Mr. Parry, the consignee, to reship it. 
To this he consented, and it was peaceably sent 
to Halifax. 

Not long afterwards, a second cargof came, sept. 
consigned to the same person. The popular fer- ^' 
ment could not be allayed. His house was 
attacked and the windows broken. He applied to 
the governor for protection. The governor sum- 
moned the council and magistrates. But, in the 
meantime, the town committee prevailed on Mr. 

» Portsmouth Town Records, H., i>p. 295, 297, 299, 300, 303. f Ibid. 305. 



230 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Parry to send the tea to Halifax, and quiet was 

'^ restored. 

Nearly all the towns had by this time passed 
resolves condemning the use of tea. Committees 
of vigilance and inspection, composed of the most 
vigilant of the Sons of Liberty, aided by the senti- 
ment of the people, carried those resolves into 
effect. Public sentiment banished tea from the 
table entirely. The women, with praiseworthy 

1774. spirit, gave it up ; and tradition says that the 
more inveterate devotees of the herb descended 
into their cellars, and, having barred the doors, 
secretly and with trembling gave way to their love 
of the proscribed and obnoxious beverage. 

Everything indicated that the people of New 
Hampshire were fast uniting with the views of 
Massachusetts and the other colonies. In vain 
did the governor labor to prevent the free action 
of the people. In vain did he dissolve and adjourn 
their meetings. In vain did he declare them ille- 
gal. They rose when he entered among them to 
declare their proceedings void ; but no sooner had 
he retired than they resumed their seats and pro- 
ceeded, unrestricted by forms. An authority was 
rising in the province above the authority of the 
governor — an authority founded on the broad basis 
of the people's will — an authority before which the 
shadow of royal government was destined to pass 
away. The people appointed committees of cor- 

JuiyH. respondence, and chose delegates* to the provin- 

sept.4. cial congress at Philadelphia ; and nowhere were 
the proceedings of the congress more universally 
approved. " Our atmosphere threatens a hurri- 

* Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan. 



N E W II A 31 P S H I R E . 231 

cane," wrote the governor to a confidential friend, chap. 
" I have strove in vain, ahnost to death, to prevent .SJ-^ 
it. If I can, at last, bring out of it safety to my 
country, and honor to our sovereign, my labors 
will be joyful." 

The people of New Hampshire soon gave an 
example of the spirit by which the whole country 
was animated equally with themselves. An order 
had been pjissed by the king in council prohibiting 
the exportation of gunpowder to America. A Bei- 
copy of it was brought by express to Portsmouth, 
at a time when a ship of war was daily expected 
from Boston to take possession of fort William 
and Mary. The committee of the town, with 1774. 
secrecy and despatch, collected a company from £" 
Portsmouth and some of the neighboring towns, Dec.n. 
and, before the governor had any suspicion of their 
intentions, they proceeded to Newcastle and as- . 
saulted the fort before the troops had arrived. 
The captain and five men, who were the whole 
of the garrison, were taken into custody, and one 
hundred barrels of powder were carried off. The 
next day another company removed fifteen of the 
lighter cannon, together with all the small arms 
and other warlike stores. These were carefully 
secreted in the several towns, under the care of 
the committees, and afterwards did effectual ser- 
vice at Bunker's Hill. Major John Sullivan and 
John Langdon were the leaders in this expedition. 
No sooner was it accomplished, than the Scar- 
borough frigate and sloop of war Canseau arrived, 
with several companies of soldiers. They took 
possession of the fort, but found only the heavy j^^Jf: 
cannon. Sullivan and Langdon were afterwards 



232 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, chosen delegates to the next general congress, to 

..^...J^ be holden on the tenth of May. 

The whiter of 1774 passed away in gloomy 
apprehension and anxiety. It was evident that 
the breach between the two countries was too 
wide to be healed. No mediator could be found, 
and there was too much reason to fear that this 
controversy must be decided on the field of battle.* 
The port of Boston was shut and guarded by ships 
of war. Its commerce was ruined, its poor with- 
out bread, its merchants without business. A 
military governor presided over them, and was 
concentrating troops, as if in apprehension of an 
approaching crisis. Parliament had voted the 
existence of rebellion in Massachusetts, and the 
king had demanded an augmentation of his forces 
by sea and land. 

On the night of the 18th of April, Gen. Gage, 
governor of Massachusetts, despatched a body of 
his troops privately, to destroy a magazine of pro- 
Aprii visions and ammunition which the provincials had 
collected at Concord. He hoped also to secure 
the persons of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, 
two of the most active and ardent of the Sons of 
Liberty. At eleven in the evening the troops 
were embarked at Boston, under the command of 
Lieut. Col. Smith and Maj. Pitcairn. The pro- 
vincials had notice of their approach, and at five 
o'clock, on the morning of the nineteenth, they 
had assembled at Lexington, to the number of 

* The spirit which was displayed by the people may be seen by reference 
to tKe New Hampshire Gazette for the period of 1760 to 1775. The follow- 
ing papers are of especial interest, viz. : 1767, Jan. 2 ; Nov. 27; Dec. 11, 
24; 1768, Jan. 15, 22, 29; Feb. 12, 19, 26; March 11, 18; April 8, 15, 22, 
29 ; May 6 ; June 17, 24 ; 1769, Nov. lU ; Dec. 29. 



19 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 233 

seventy. The royal troops appeared in sight, and 
Major Pitcairn, riding forward, brandished his 
sword at the head of his column, and cried out to 
the Americans, " Disperse, ye rebels ! lay down 
your arms and retire!" Not being instantly 
obeyed, he ordered his men to fire. Eight of the 
provincials fell, and the remainder retreated, pur- 
sued by the British. 

Thus was spilled the first blood of the Revolu- 
tion. Thus was opened the grand drama, which 
closed in the dismemberment of a great empire 
and the birth of the first American republic. The 
American Revolution ! — that revolution which was 
to make the names of its actors celebrated with 
immortal praises, and their memoiy dear to pos- 
terity — that revolution which was to be the dread 
of tyrants, and the example and the hope of free- 
men, to the latest ages. 

A simple monument, raised a few yards from 
the church, now marks the spot where fell these 
first martyrs to the cause of liberty. The detach- 
ment proceeded to Concord, and, after a hot skir- 
mish, destroyed or removed the stores, and then 
retreated precipitately towards Lexington, assailed 
with fury by the provincials. The minute-men, 
hastily assembling from all quarters, followed in 
close pursuit. Posted behind fences, trees, and 
stumps, they kept up a galling and destructive 
fire along the whole line of the march, which it 
was impossible for the British to return. They at 
length reached Lexington, where they were met 
by Lord Percy, with a reinforcement of nine hun- 
dred men. At sunset they reached Charlestown 
neck, overcome with fatigue, and having lost two 
30 



234) HISTORY OF 

CHAP, hundred and seventy-three in killed, wounded and 
^JJ^ missing. The provincials lost eighty-eight. 

The news of the battle of Lexington spread 
everywhere with electric speed. From all parts 
the cry rung, to arms. The militia poured in from 
all quarters, and soon there was collected in the 
neighborhood of Boston an army of twenty thou- 
May. sand men. In May, the Americans, under Ethan 
Allen and Benedict Arnold, surprised and took the 
strong fortress of Ticonderoga ; and soon after, a 
detachment, under Colonel Warner, took pos- 
session of Crown Point. During all these hostile 
movements. Governor Wentworth, who, like most 
of the British governors, entirely mistook the 
weems' g^uius of tlic pcoplc of Ncw England, continued 
w£h^ to be sanguine in his hopes to plant the root of 
ington. pejiee in New Hampshire. He summoned a new 
assembly, and in his speech* exhorted them to di- 
rect their councils to peace. He earnestly con- 
jured them to an affectionate reconciliation with 
the mother country. But the spell of royal influ- 
ence was broken. The assembly desired a short 
recess, and he adjourned them to the twelfth of 
June. Meanwhile, the crew of the Scarborough 
proceeded to dismantle fort William and Mary. 
They also seized two vessels, coming into the 
harbor, laden with provisions. The inhabitants 
demanded their release ; but the governor refused 
to give them up. Immediately a body of men 
armed themselves and proceeded to a battery at 
May Jerry's point, at Great Island, and seized eight 
pieces of cannon and brought them to Portsmouth. 
But while they were engaged in this, the Canseau 

1 * Prov. Rec, Jour. House, 1770—1775. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 235 

sloop convoyed the two provision-vessels to Bos- 
ton, for the supply of the British fleet and army. 

A convention of the people had been called, and 
was at this time sitting at Exeter. They passed 
a vote of thanks to those who had removed the 
cannon from the battery, and to those who had 
taken the powder and guns from the fort, under 
Sullivan and Langdon. Recognising the doctrine 
that the representative is the mere organ, servant, 
or agent of the people, and bound to obey their 
known will, the people had instructed the repre- 
sentatives how to proceed in several important par- 
ticulars at the next assembly. They had come 
freshly from the people. In this body the province knlp. 
was fully and equally represented, and the voice of 
the convention was therefore regarded as the voice 
of the people. Pursuant to adjournment, the house 
met on the twelfth of June, and the governor again 12 
recommended "the conciliatory proposition."* 
The house gave him no heed, as appears by the 
first step they took. Recognising the duty of the 
representative to obey the voice of his constituents, 
they proceeded, in obedience to the instructions 
of the convention, to expel three members whom 
the governor had called by the king's writ from 
three new townships. This they did because these 
members were elected from their known partiality 
to the royal cause,! while other towns, much older 
and more populous, were not represented. One 
of the expelled members, having censured this 
proceeding, was assaulted by the populace, and 
fled for shelter to the governor's house. The peo- 

* The proposition of Lord North. Pari. Deb. 
t Prov. Rec, Jour. House, 1770—1775. 



June 



236 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, pie demanded him, and, being refused, they pomted 

.^ L a gun at the governor's door ; whereupon the 

offender was surrendered and carried to Exeter. 
The governor retired to the fort, and his house 
was pillaged. He afterwards went on board the 
Scarborough and sailed for Boston. He had 
adjourned the assembly to the 28th of September. 
But they met no more. In September, he issued 
a proclamation from the Isles of Shoals, adjourn- 
ing them to April next. This was the closing act 
of his administration. It was the last receding 
step of royalty. It had subsisted in the province 
ninety-five years. The government of New Hamp- 
shire was henceforth to be a government of the 
people. 

The news of the battle of Lexington aroused 
all America. Men of all classes — the mechanic 
from his shop, the farmer from the field — all has- 
tened towards Boston ; and a volunteer army of 
thirty thousand men were found assembled in a 
short time, and closely pressing the siege upon the 
British within the city. Twenty thousand of these 
were sent home by the American generals.* But 
of those who remained, twelve hundred were from 
New Hampshire, under command of the colonels 
Stark and Reid ; the former of whom, while at 
work in his saw-mill, heard of the battle of Lex- 
•• ington, and instantly dropped the implements of 
labor, seized his musket, and hastened to the post 
of danger. So closely were the British troops 
besieged, and so completely was their communi- 
cation with the adjacent country cut off, that it 
was impossible to obtain supplies. They dared 

* Botta, I., 186. 



1 



NEW HA3IPSHIRE. 237 

not to sally forth even to procure food ; yet they chap. 
looked upon the insurgent people with disdain. — 'J^ 

All eyes were now fixed on the two armies at 1775. 
Boston ; the one composed of the regular troops of 
the king within the city, the other a body of raw 
militia, collected from the workshop and the plough, 
closely pressing a siege upon their disciplined and 
confident foe. The Americans had elected Gen. 
Ward commander-in-chief, with Col. Putnam for 
the second in command. The British, already 
reinforced, were under the command of Gage, 
Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne ; all skilful and ex- 
perienced commanders. They had come from the 
battle-fields of Europe freshly decked with lau- 
rels. They had combatted successfully against 
the most warlike nations in the world. Were 
they to be seriously opposed by "a flock of 
Yankees?" as they contemptuously named the 
Americans. Elated with the recollection of their 
past achievements, they panted to wipe off the dis- 
grace of Lexington. They could not bear to rest 
under the thought that they had turned their backs 
at Concord, and retreated before a foe whom they 
despised and persisted in calling cowards. 

They were now suffering extremely from scar- 
city of food. This, as well as a desire to execute 
something, determined the British to attempt some 
mode to extricate themselves from their diflicult 
position, and gain an entrance into the open coun- 
try. The American generals were apprized of 
their intention, and, in order to prevent this move- 
ment they resolved to fortify the heights of Bun- 
ker's hill. Orders were therefore given to Col. 1,202. 
William Prescott to occupy them with a detach- 



238 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ment of one thousand men, and to fortify himself 

. i_ there. But, from some mistake, instead of repair- 
ing to the heights of Bunker's hill, he advanced 
farther on, and commenced his entrenchments on 
the heights of Breed's hill, another eminence which 
overlooks Charlestown, and is situated towards 
the extremity of the peninsula, nearer to Boston. 
• The labor had been conducted with such silence 
as to be unperceived by the English ; and, by the 
following morning at daybreak, the Americans had 
already constructed a square redoubt, capable of 
affording them shelter from the enemy. The Eng- 
lish had no suspicion of what was passing. It 
was about four o'clock the next morning when the 

L.^'iS. captain of a ship of war first perceived it, and 
began to play his artillery. It now became impor- 
tant to dislodge the provincials from this formi- 
dable position, or at least to stop the progress 

1775. of their entrenchments. The English, therefore, 
opened a general fire of artillery, which hailed 
a tempest of bombs and balls upon the works of 
the Americans. But, notwithstanding the fury of 

i^^aos ^"^^ enemy's artillery, the Americans continued to 
work the whole day with unshaken constancy ; and 
towards night they had already much advanced 
a trench, which descended from the redoubt to the 
foot of the hill and almost to the banks of Mystic 
river. The small passage between they obstructed 
with two parallel palisades, which were made by 
pulling up some adjoining post and rail fence, and 
setting it down in two parallel lines near each 
other, filling the space between with grass.* The 
right wing was flanked by the houses of Charles- 

* Morse's Revolution, p. 231. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE, 



239 



town, which they occupied ; the centre and left 
wing formed themselves behind the trench, which, 
following the declivity of the hill, extended towards 
Mystic river. The troops of Massachusetts oc- 
cupied Charlestown, the redoubt, and a part of 
the trench ; those of Connecticut, commanded by 
Capt. Nolten, and those of New Hampshire, under 
Cols. Stark and Reed, the rest of the trench.* 

Before the battle commenced. Dr. Warren, 
who had volunteered his services, arrived, and 
joined the troops of Massachusetts. Gen. Pomeroy 
made his appearance at the same time, and took 
command of those from Connecticut. Gen. Put- 
nam directed in chief, and held himself ready to 
repair to any point where his presence should be 
most needed. About midday, the heat being in- 
tense, all was in motion in the British camp. A 
multitude of sloops and boats, filled with British 
soldiers, the whole under the command of General 
Howe and Brigadier General Pigot, crossed over 
to Charlestown, and landed without meeting resist- 
ance. Their debarkation was protected by the 
fire of the artillery from the ships of war, which 
forced the Americans to keep within their entrench- 
ments. The troops, on landing, began to display, 
the light infantry on the right, the grenadiers on 
the left ; but having observed the strength of the 
position and the good countenance of the Ameri- 
cans, Gen. Howe made a halt, and sent to call a 
reinforcement. The English now formed them- 
selves in two columns. Their plan was that the 
left wing, under General Pigot, should attack the 



Botta, 
I., 204. 



Botta, 
I., 20-1. 



1775. 

June 17 



Botta, 

I., 204. 



* In describing the battle of Bunker's Hill, I have adopted the statements, 
and, in some instances, the language, of Botta, the Italian historian. 



240 HISTORY OF 

cHAr. rebels in Charlestown, while the centre assaulted 

IX 

._..__, the redoubt ; and the right wing, consisting of light 
infantry, should force the passage near the river 
Mystic, and thus assail the Americans in flank and 
rear. It appears, also, that Gen. Gage had formed 
the design of setting fire to Charlestown, in order 
that the corps destined to assail the redoubt, thus 
protected by the flames and smoke, might be 
less exposed to the fire of the provincials. The 
dispositions having all been completed, the Eng- 
lish put themselves in motion. The provincials 
that were stationed to defend Charlestown, fearing 
lest the assailants should penetrate between the 
town and the redoubt, and thus to find themselves 
cut off* from the rest of the army, retreated. The 
English immediately entered the town and fired 
the buildings, which being of wood, the com- 
bustion soon became general. They continued a 
slow march against the redoubt and trench, halting 
from time to time for the artillery to come up and 
act vrith some eflfect previous to the assault. The 
flames and smoke of Charlestown were of little use 
to them, as the wind turned them in a contrary di- 
rection. The scene presented by the hostile armies 
was sublime beyond the power of language. The 
veil of smoke rising from Charlestown, the flames, 
the crash of fiilling houses, the uproar of the artil- 
lery, and the sanguinary nature of the conflict, all 
conspired to render the spectacle one of surpassing 
sublimity and interest. On the part of the Eng- 
lish, honor was at stake — fame might be won. On 
the side of the Americans, the defence of their 
country, the liberty and rights of themselves and 
their posterity, now depended upon their arms and 



NEW HAMrSHIRE. 241 

their valor. The spires and roofs of Boston, the chap. 

T"Y* 

hills and circumjacent fields, were covered with .„.-__ 
swarms of spectators, all intently viewing the men, 
who, unaccustomed to the glare of military show, 
clad in the rude vestments of husbandry, with 
scarcely a badge or a banner to deck their ranks, 
were to show, by this day's conduct, whether they 
were worthy to transmit freedom to their children. 
The English advanced, exulting in anticipation of 
an easy triumph. Their standards waved proudly 
above them, and the wild music of their martial 
bands rose on the air and mingled with the roar 
of the artillery. With muskets levelled, but re- 
serving their fire, the Americans awaited the result 
in profound tranquillity. The weather was clear, 
and permitted them to take good aim. Not a shot 
was fired until the English had advanced within a 
few yards of tKe works, when a terrible flash came 
from the redoubt, and a deluge of balls poured 
amidst the enemy's ranks. Volley after volley 
succeeded, with such fatal aim, that not even the 
practised courage of royal troops could withstand 
its effect. They reeled as before a whirlwind, and 
fled in wild disorder to the place of landing. Some 
threw themselves precipitately into the boats. 

The English officers were now seen running 1775. 
hither and thither amongst the disordered battal- •'""*^^''- 
ions, with promises, with exhortations and with 
menaces, attempting to rally the soldiers for a 
second attack. At length, after the most painful 
efforts, they resumed their ranks and turned their 
faces again towards the deadly redoubt. The 
Americans reserved their fire, as before, until they 
had advanced within a few yards, and then poured 
31 



242 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, upon them the same deluge of balls. Overwhelmed 

and routed, they again fled to the shore. For 

^s^do'^' a moment General Howe remained alone upon 
the field of battle ; all the officers who surrounded 
him were killed or w^ounded. At this critical con- 
juncture, upon which depended the issue of the 
day, General Clinton, who from Copp's Hill had 
watched all the movements, seeing the destruction 
of his best troops, immediately resolved to fly to 
their succor ; and entering a boat he was rowed 
rapidly to Charlestown. By an able movement, 
this experienced commander re-established order, 
and being promptly seconded by the officers, who 
felt all the importance of success to English honor, 
^°"^' led the troops to the third attack. It was directed 
against the redoubt at the several points. The 
rimmunition of the Americans being exhausted, and 
being without bayonets, they defended themselves 
vahantly for a w^hile with the butt-ends of their mus- 
kets ; but, seeing the redoubt and the upper part 
of the trench filled with enemies, they slowly retired. 
During the action the ships of war raked the isth- 
mus of Charlestown to prevent any reinforcements 
from passing to the Americans from Cambridge. 
General Putnam, seeing this, rode several times to 
and fro along the isthmus, to convince the Cam- 
bridge division that they could pass over with 
safety. But being apprehensive of an attack in 
their own position, they declined engaging in the 
battle. The Americans had not yet reached the 
Botta, period of their greatest peril. The only way of 
retreat was by the isthmus of Charlestown, which 
was raked by the guns of the Glasgow ship of war 
and two floating batteries. The Americans, how- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 243 

ever, issued from the peninsula without losing any chap. 
considerable number of men. Yet their loss was ^J^ 
great, for it was here that the brave Warren was 
killed. A British officer singled him out and shot 
him with a gun which he borrowed from a soldier. 
He fell and died upon the spot. In him America 
lost a man of the purest patriotism and the most 
undaunted bravery — an able statesman, an ac- 
complished orator. New Hampshire here lost a 
gallant son, Major Andrew M' Clary, who was 
killed by a cannon shot after he had passed the 
isthmus. Thus ended the battle of Bunker's* hill, 
and with it the confidence which the British had Records, 



reposed in the cowardice of the Americans. The 
Americans reaped the fruits of a victory. The '^'"^ 
British remained masters of the field. Their loss , ^^^' 

knap,p. 

was ten hundred and fifty-four. The Americans ^^^• 

. . Whi- 

lost, in killed, wounded and missing, four hundred ton, 
and fifty three.f ^' 

In this battle the New Hampshire troops, posted 
beliind the breast-work, on the left of the main 
body, behaved with distinguished bravery. They 
helped to sustain that galling fire which swept 
down whole regiments of the British as they 
advanced to the attack. They made good the 
defence of their position, until the loss of the 
redoubt compelled the American commander to 
sound the signal of retreat. The number lost from 
Stark's regiment was fifteen killed and missing, 
and sixty wounded ; the number from Colonel 

* In compliance with the popular language, I call the scene of the battle 
Eunher's hill, which is a quarter of a mile north of Breed's or Russell's hill, 
where the battle was fought. 

t Hale's Hist. U. S., vol. I., p. 269. Morse sets it down at 355. Revo- 
lution, p. 232. Neither of these authors gives any authorities. 



244 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Reed's regiment was three killed, one missing, 
J^ twenty-nine womided.*^ After the battle, the 
third New Hampshire regiment, under the com- 
mand of Colonel Poor, assembled and marched to 
the camp ; and, with the other New Hampshire 
regiments, was stationed on Winter Hill, under the 
immediate command of Brigadier General Sulli- 
van. Besides these troops, a company of artillery 
was raised to garrison the forts. A company of 
rangers was posted on Connecticut river, and two 
companies more were organized to be ready to 
march wherever the committee of safety should 
direct. The whole militia was divided into twelve 
regiments. t Out of these were enlisted four regi- 
ments of minute-men, J who were to hold themselves 
in readiness to march to any point, and were con- 
stantly trained to military duty. In the succeed- 
ing winter, the Connecticut forces, whose term of 
service had expired, withdrew from the camp, and 
sixteen companies of the New Hampshire militia 
1776. supplied their place until the British troops evacu- 
17. ated Boston. 

Meanwhile the American congress had assem- 

1776. bled at Philadelphia. George Washington had 

June been appointed commander of the American 

1775. army, and had entered Boston in triumph, amidst 

the rejoicings of the people. In the forty-fourth 

year of his age, a period of life which placed 

him beyond the illusions of youth, and possessed of 

an ample fortune, renowned for his fidelity and 

virtue, the congress found united in him all the 

* See Stark's letter, Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc, H., 145. Sweet's Hist. Bunker 
Hill Battle. 

t N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 336. 

because they were to march at a minute's warning. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 245 

qualities necessary to secure success in the chief chap. 

, IX. 

of the union. To him they resolved to adhere ^JJ^ 
in every extremity with their lives and fortunes. 
Still further to ensure success, they resolved 
to place at the head of the army other able 
and experienced officers. Accordingly, Artemas 
Ward, Charles Lee, and Philip Schuyler were 
appointed major generals. Horatio Gates, an 
officer known to be profoundly versed in all the 
details of military science, was made adjutant Bona, 

. . . 1.,'217. 

general. They also created eight brigadier gene- 
rals, viz., Seth Ponieroy, William Heath and John 
Thomas, of Massachusetts ; Richard Montgomery, 
of New York ; David Wooster and John Spencer, 
of Connecticut ; John Sullivan, of New Hamp- 
shire ; and Nathaniel Green, of Rhode Island. 

After these appointments had been made, the 
congress applied themselves, with the greatest 
activity, to obtain the means to carry on a war. 
The people promptly seconded their efforts, and 
proceeded, in the several colonies, to raise men, 
to arm and equip them, and to provide themselves 
with arms and munitions of war. An exact scru- i., 219. 
tiny was commenced in the cellars and stables for 
saltpetre and sulphur. In every part of the coun- 
try manufactories of gunpowder and foundries of 
cannon were seen rising ; every place resounded 
with the preparations of war. All men fit to bear 
arms were ordered to form themselves into battal- 
ions. Those who could not bear arms, came forth 
to aid the cause by every other means in their power. 
The most rigorous religious opinions easily found 
evasions. Even the (Quakers, kindling in the great 
convulsion, allowed themselves to be transported 



246 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, by a zeal for liberty, and joined the companies of 
J5_ the Philadelphians. The aged Germans resumed 
the profession of arms, so long relinquished, and 
resolved to bear a part in the common defence. 
With crape upon their hats, to denote their regret 
at the unfortunate causes which compelled them 
to take up arms, they formed themselves into a 
body, called the " Old Men's Company," and 
resumed their arms to defend the liberty of that 
country which had offered them an asylum, when 
oppression forced them to abandon their own. 

The women were forward to signalize their zeal 
for liberty. They chose to work the soldier's 
rough garb, rather than the embroidery of fashion. 
With their own hands they embroidered the colors 
and adorned them with appropriate mottos ; then 
presented them to the regiments, with eloquent 
discourses on liberty, and earnest entreaties to the 
soldiers never to desert their banners. In the 
county of Bristol, Pennsylvania, they resolved to 
equip a regiment of men at their own cost. 

While such was the enthusiasm for liberty, it 
was but natural that a violent resentment should 
be kindled against those who still adhered to the 
royal cause. These took the name of tories ; 
their opponents, the name of whigs,*or sons of lib- 
erty. The tories were persecuted with relentless 
fury. Some of them were arrested and imprison- 
Bei- ed. Some fled to Nova Scotia, or to England, 
p'^s?!'. some joined the British army in Boston. Others 
were restricted to certain limits, and their motions 
continually watched. The passions of jealousy, 
hatred and revenge were under no restraint. 
Although many lamented these excesses, there 



N E W 11 A 31 P S H I R E . 247 

seemed to be no effectual remedy. All the bands chap. 

IX 

of ancient authority wer^ broken. The courts ..JJ^ 
were shut ; the sword of magistracy was sheathed. 
But amidst the general laxity in the forms of gov- 
ernment, order prevailed ; reputation, life and 
property were still secure ; thus proving that it is 
not in outward forms of austerity, or sanguinary 
punishments, or nicely written codes, or veneration 
for what is old, that our rights find protection — 
but in the potent, though unseen, influence of fam- 
ily ties, virtuous habits and lofty example. These 
contributed more, at this time, to maintain order 
than any other authority ; thus illustrating how 
much stronger are the secret than the apparent 
bonds of society. But^ the people of New Hamp- 
shire proceeded to perfect, as far as possible, their ^Jj^^ 
provisional government. The convention which 
had assembled at Exeter, was elected but for 
six months. Previous to their dissolution in h.* 
November, they made provisions, pursuant to the 
recommendations of congress, for calling a new 
convention, which should be a more full represen- 
tation of the people. They sent copies of these 
provisions to the several towns, and dissolved. 1775. 

* Dec. 

The elections were forthwith held. The new con- 21.^ 
vention promptly assembled, and drew up a tempo- 
rary form of government. 

Having assumed the name of House of Repre- 1776. 
SENTATivES, they adopted a constitution,* and pro- ^^'^- ^• 
cceded to choose twelve persons to constitute a dis- Bei- 
tinct and a co-ordinate branch of the legislature, p.^364. 
by the name of a council. These twelve were 
empowered to elect their own president ; and any 

* A copy of this is in N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., p. 150. 



248 HISTORY OF 

seven of them were to be a quorum. It was or- 
dained that no act or resolve should be valid, 

1776. unless passed by both branches of the legislature ; 
that all money bills should originate in the house 
of representatives ; that neither house should ad- 
journ for more than two days, without the consent 
of the other ; that a secretary and all other public 
officers of the colony and of each county for the 
current year, all general and field officers of militia, 
and all officers of the marching regiments, should 
be appointed by the two houses ; all subordinate 
militia officers by their respective companies ; that 
the present assembly should subsist one year, and, 
if the dispute with Britain should continue longer, 

^Bei- jj^jjd ([^Q general congress should give no directions 
2^^- to the contrary, that precepts should be issued 
annually, to the several towns, on or before the 
first day of November, for the choice of council- 
lors and representatives. 

Thus did the convention establish annual elec- 
tions and co-ordinate branches of government, each 
having a negative upon the other. But in this 
system there was still a material defect. It pro- 
vided for no executive. To remedy this, the two 
houses assumed to themselves the executive duty 
during the session, and they appointed a committee 
of safety to sit in the recess, varying in number 
from six to sixteen, vested with executive powers. 
The president of the council was president of the 
Bd- executive committee. To this responsible and 

p^'sm'. honorable station they called that old and tried 
servant of the public, Meshech Weare ; a man of 
no brilliant parts, but of a sound understanding, 
a calm temper, and a benevolent heart ; a ripe 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 249 

scholar, accurate in his judafment, of modest de- chap. 

IX 

portment, prudent and dihgent. So great was L_ 

the confidence reposed in Weare, that he was also 
made judge of the superior court.* Thus the 
people did not scruple to invest him, at the same 
time, with the highest offices, legislative, executive 
and judicial. To the offices of president of the 
state and judge he continued to he chosen, by 
annual elections, through the stormy period of the 
revolution, discharging his various duties with 
unsurpassed fidelity and wisdom. He died in the 17S6. 
seventy-third year of his age. As he had not 
enriched himself by public employments, he died 
poor in worldly goods, but rich in the gratitude of 
the people, and honored ])y their unaffected sorrow. 
Congress now resolved to contest the power of 
England, on her chosen clement, the seas. Having j-,^g 
observed the skill and success of a few privateers, 
in protecting the coasts of the continent, and in- 
tercepting English navigation, they decreed that 
five ships of war should be constructed and armed. 
Of tliesc, one was to be built in New Hampshire. 
After long delays, the Raleigh was completed in 
Portsmouth, and joined the other ships, all under 
command of Commodore Hopkins. With incred- 
ible despatch this little fleet was equipped. A 
multitude of privateers sprang into existence at 
the same time, and swarmed out into the sea, with a 
success fatal to English navigation. An immense 
quantity of provisions, cattle, arms and munitions 
of war, which the English were transporting across 
the ocean, at a vast expense, became the prey of 
the American ships. 

* N. H. Hist. Coll., v., p. 2.15. 

32 



250 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. While New Hampshire thus contributed her full 

IX . 

._ ^ share to this humble squadron, she also furnished 

1776 her quota of troops. Two thousand men were 
raised for the service of this year, and constituted 
four regiments. One moved from Boston to New 
York, in the army of Washington, and was placed 
under command of General Sullivan. One, raised 
in the western part of the province, under com- 
mand of Colonel Bedell, was destined to join the 
expedition against Canada — one of the most sin- 
gularly bold, and romantic enterprises recorded in 
military annals. The names of Montgomery, 
Morgan, Allen,* Warner, Livingston, Brown and 
Arnold, appear as leaders — all bold spirits, distin- 
guished for deeds of daring ; and all, with the 
exception of the last, true to the American cause. 
This expedition contemplated the bold plan of 
loading two forces, one of which, by the way of 
the Kennebec, was to emerge from the wilderness 
near Quebec, and join another force marching by 
the w^ay of lake Champlain. With incredible for- 
titude, and after incredible hardships, they had 
reached their destination, and, in the face of fear- 
ful odds, had taken Montreal. Hastening to 
Quebec, amidst the snows of that fierce climate, 
i-,-,^ in the month of December, Montgomery hurried 
Dec. on to the assault of that strong fortress. Pro- 

31. . . 

digies of valor were performed by the American 
troops, but they were overpowered by numbers. 
Montgomery, the brave and generous Montgomery, 
fell there, wept and honored ; Arnold was carried 
oft' the field wounded, and Morgan succeeded to 
the command. Impetuous as the thunderbolt, he 

* Of Vermont, who led the " Green Mountain Boj's." 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 251 

rushed forward, and fought like a lion at the chap. 

IX 

head of his forlorn hope ; but was forced to sur- 

render. While the American troops were com- 
pelled to retreat from Quebec, calamity followed 
them in another quarter. The important post of 
the Cedars, about forty miles above Montreal, gar- 
risoned by four hundred men, under Col. Bedell, 
was surrendered, in the most cowardly manner, by 
a subordinate officer* of Colonel Bedell, to five 
hundred British and Indians. Finally, after linger- 
ing in the vicinity of Quebec until the augment- 1776. 
ed numbers of the British army rendered every 
hope vain, the Americans determined on evacuating 
Canada, and commenced their retreat. It was to 
meet the broken remnants of the army of Canada, 
that General Sullivan was detached by Washing- 
ton, from New York, at the head of the New 
Hampshire troops. 

At the mouth of the Sorel he met them, in the June i. 
last extremity of suffering. They had been com- 
pelled to subsist sometimes upon the meat of dogs, 
and had even boiled their shoes in the last extrem- 
ity of hunger. The small-pox had broken out 
amongst them, to which the commander-in-chief, 
General Thomas, had fallen a victim. Followed 
by an army of thirteen thousand men, they retreat- 
ed to St. Johns, where pursuit ceased, and on the 
first of July, they arrived at Ticonderoga. Near- J"'y »• 
ly one third of them had perished by sickness. 
Those that remained, marched under Washington, 
and took part in the brilliant actions of Trenton 
and Princeton. 

The American congress were now about to take 

* Colonel Bedell was, at the time, absent at IMontreal to obtain assistance. 



252 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, an important step. Independence had become the 
.^,-J^ general voice of the people. On the eleventh of 
elmV June? 1776, a committee was chosen by the assem- 
^r^ bly and another by the council of New Hampshire, 
^InV " to make a draught of a declaration of the inde- 
aibif of pendence of the united colonies." On the fifteenth, 
pen- the committees of both houses reported a Decla- 
ration OF Independence, which was adopted 
15. unanimously, and a copy sent forthwith to their 
delegates in congress. It was in these words : — 
"Whereas it now appears an undoubted fact, that, 
notwithstanding all the dutiful petitions and decent 
remonstrances from the American colonies, and 
the utmost exertions of their best friends in Eng- 
land on their behalf, the British ministry, arbitrary 
and vindictive, are yet determined to reduce, by 
fire and sword, our bleeding country to their abso- 
lute obedience ; and for this purpose, in addition 
to their own forces, they have engaged great num- 
bers of foreign mercenaries, who may now be on 
their passage here, accompanied by a formidable 
fleet to ravish and plunder the sea-coast ; from all 
which we may reasonably expect the most dismal 
scenes of distress the ensuing year, unless we 
exert ourselves by every means and precaution 
possible ; and whereas we, of this colony of New 
Hampshire, have the example of several of the 
most respectable of our sister colonies before us, 
for entering upon that most important step of dis- 
union from Great Britain, and declaring ourselves 
FREE AND INDEPENDENT of the crown 
thereof, being impelled thereto, by the most violent 
and injurious treatment ; and it appearing abso- 
lutely necessary, in this most critical juncture of 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 253 

our public affairs, that the houorable, the conli- chap. 
nental congress, who have this important object — 1-!_. 
under immediate consideration, shouhl be also 
informed of our resolutions thereon, without loss 
of time ; we do hereby declare that it is the opin- 
ion of this assembly, that our delegates at the 
continental congress should be instructed, and 
th<^ are hereby instructed, to join with the other 
colonies, in declaring the thirteen united colonies 
a free and independent state — solemnly pledging 
our faith and honor, that we will, on our parts, 
support the measure with our lives and fortunes — 
and that, in consequence thereof, they, the conti- 
nental congress, on whose wisdom, fidelity and 
integrity we rely, may enter into and form such 
alliances as they may judge most conducive to the 
present safety and future advantage of these 
American colonies : Provided, the regulation of 
our own internal police be under the direction of 
our own assembly." 

. . N. H. 

This declaration was not in advance of the pop- Gazette 

^ * June 8, 

ular sentiment. The New Hampshire Gazette, as i""*^- 
early as October, 1775, had hinted at indepen- 
dence, and now advocated it. " AVherein," says 
a writer in the Gazette of June 8th, 177G, "is 
America lawfully subject to the crown of Great 
Britain, or to any other power in that island? 
The answer, at the present time, is very obvious ; 
that Great Britain, by the free consent and con- 
currence of the king with the other two branches 
of the legislature, having, by acts of the greatest 
injustice and inhumanity, and with unparalleled 
cruelty and violence, broke faith with America, the 
latter stands wholly disengaged from, and indepen- 



p. 3G3. 



254 ^ HISTORY OF 

CHAP, dent of, and unconnected with, the former, and is 

IX 

...-^ at hberty to form any new plan of union or dis- 
union, as she thinks fit and best. All charters and 
agreements betw^een the two countries are entirely 
cancelled and vacated ; and a state of nature in 
America, so far as relates to the laws of Great 
Britain, has revolved upon the former, wholly 
owing to the misconduct of the latter — all laws 
naturally returning back into the hands of the 
people, or at least, ought so to do, as often as 
tyranny and oppression extend their lawless 
sway." 

This writer only gave expression to the popular 
feeling and to the sentiments of the declaration. 

1776. Otlier states passed similar resolves ; and on the 
fourth of July, a day ever memorable, that im- 
mortal body, the American Congress, in which 

jy, 4 New Hampshire was represented by Josiah Bart- 
lett, William Whipple and Matthew Thornton, 
i)ul)lished their high resolve to the world. It was 
framed by the philoso})hic mind of Jefferson, and 
proclaimed the complete independence of the col- 
onies. It dissolved all connexion with Great Brit- 
ain. It was received with joy by the army and 
the people. Within fourteen days, it was pub- 

kaap. lished by beat of drum in all the shire towns in 
New Hampshire. At Exeter it was read, by the 
i)atriotic Gilman, to the assembled multitude, with 
a rapturous emotion which for a few moments 
choked his utterance. 

And now America presented a spectacle inviting 
the admiration of the world. With defeat on her 
arms, yet with a resolution soaring above the 
reverses of fortune — with AVashington in the field 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 255 

— Franklin and Jefferson in her councils — Adams chap. 

IX 

and Henry in the popular assemblies, with hun- __J_ 
dreds like them in feeling, she stood before the 
world, confronting the giant power of England. 
The patriotism of New Hampshire, at this epoch,* 
did not evaporate in momentary feeling. For the 
service of 1777, three regiments, under the com- 
mand of Colonels Joseph Cilley, Nathan Hale and 
Alexander Scammcll, were raised for long enlist- 1777^ 
ments, and rendezvoused at Ticonderoga, under the 
immediate command of Brigadier General Poor. 
Here they remained until the approach of the 
British army, under General Burgoyne, rendered 
it advisable to abandon that post. On the retreat, Bei- 
Colonel Hale's battalion was ordered to cover p.'3^4'. 
the rear of the invalids, which brought him seven -^"'y^- 
miles behind the main body. The next morning 
he was attacked by an advanced party of the 
enemy at Hubbardton. A sharp skirmish ensued, 
in which Major Titcomb was wounded, and Colonel 
Hale, Captains Robertson, Carr and Norris, Ad- 
jutant Elliot and two other officers, with about 
one hundred men, were taken prisoners. The 
main body of the army fell back upon Saratoga. 
But, before their arrival, a skirmish took place at 
fort Anne, in which Captain Weare, a son of the 
president, was mortally wounded, and died after- 
wards at Albany. When the news of Burgoyne's 
advance reached New Hampshire, the asseml)ly 
was quickly summoned together, and, in a session 
of three days, adopted an effectual plan of defence. 
They formed the militia of the state into two 

* See "Returns of the Association Test," for 177G, in the office of the 
Secretary of State, at Concord. 



256 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, brigades, under command of William Whipple 

_^_ and Jolin Stark. A portion of each were drafted, 
and were ordered to march immediately to stop 
the progress of the enemy. Stark pushed forward 
and joined the Vermont forces, under Colonel 
Warner, twenty miles above Bennington. Gen. 
Burgoyne, with the main body of the British army, 
had arrived at fort Edward. Burgoyne had 

1777. vaunted that his course should lead through Ver- 
mont, and should be but a triumphal march, which 
was to complete the conquest of New England. 
Finding his army in want of provisions, and learn- 
ing that the provincials had a large depot of pork, 
beef and flour, at Bennington, he despatched 
Colonel Baum, with fifteen hundred men, to pene- 
trate to Connecticut river, to collect horses to 
mount the dragoons, and cattle for provisions. 
He was to persuade the people among whom he 
should pass that his detachment was the advanced 
guard of the army, which was in victorious march 
to Boston. Lejrrning that the provincials had a 
large depot of beef, pork and flour at Bennington, 
Colonel Baum went, with five hundred men, to 
seize them. Some of the Indians who preceded 
this detachment, being discovered about twelve 
miles from Bennington, Stark detached Colonel 
Gregg, with two hundred men, to stop their pro- 
gress. In the evening of the same day, informa- 
tion was given that a body of regular troops were 

1777. marching upon Bennington with a train of artillery. 
The next morning he marched with his whole 
brigade to the support of Gregg, who, having found 
himself outnumbered, was retreating, the enemy 
pursuing within one mile of his rear. When they 



An 
14. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1957 

perceived Stark advancing, they halted, erected chap. 
breastworks, and sent back to call a reinforce- ..Jj^ 
ment. Stark drew up his men on an eminence in 
open view, but could not bring the enemy to an 
engagement. He then marched back a mile, and 
encamped, leaving a few men to skirmish with the 
enemy. The next day being rainy, Stark kept his 
position; but, to try the spirit of his troops, he sent 
out skirmishing parties to harass the enemy. The 
militia being brave, in the several skirmishes 
between small detachments were uniformly suc- 
cessful. This sharpened their courage, and on Hales 
the sixteenth of August, Stark, who now had ^^f fi' 
his forces augmented by the Berkshire men from p- ^^^ 
Massachusetts, resolved to attack the main 
body. His force now amounted to sixteen hun- 
dred men. Colonel Nichols, v/ith two hundred 
men, was ordered to the rear of the enemy's left 
wing; and Colonel Hendrick, with three hundred, 
to the rear of their right. Three hundred men were 
ordered to attack them in front, and draw their 
attention. Then, sending Colonels Hubbard and 
Stickney, with two hundred, to attack the right 
wing, and one hundred more to reinforce Nichols 
in the rear of their left, the battle commenced 
by an attack on the rear of the left wing, at pre- 
cisely three o'clock in the afternoon. It was 
immediately seconded by tJie other detachments, 
and, at the same time, Stark himself advanced 
with the main body. For two hours the Hessians* 
fought bravely ; but, overwhelmed by numbers, 
and their entrenchments assaulted by yet braver 
troops, they were overpowered. The Americans 

* German troops in the English service. 

33 



258 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, forced their entrenchments, and they fled in dis- 

TX 

_-^ order. But carelessness had now well nigh lost 
what valor had won. The Americans, apprehend- 
ing no danger, dispersed in search of plunder and 
fugitives. Suddenly the reinforcements sent to 
Baum arrived, and fell furiously upon the scat- 
tered Americans. Fortunately, at this critical 
juncture, the Green Mountain Boys came up, 
under Colonel Warner, and threw themselves 
impetuously upon the enemy. The scattered 
militia rallied fast to his support. The battle 
lasted till night, when the enemy, retreating under 
cover of the darkness, made good their escape. 
Four pieces of cannon, with all the baggage wag- 
gons and horses of the enemy, were the trophies 
of this victory. Two hundred and twenty-six men 
were found dead on the field of battle. Colonel 
Baum, mortally wounded, was taken ; besides 
whom thirty-three officers and seven hundred pri- 
vates were made prisoners. Of Stark's brigade, 
four officers and ten privates were killed, and forty- 
two were wounded. 

Long before the battle. General Poor, a junior 
officer, had been promoted over Stark ; who, being 
offisnded, had resigned his commission, and, in dis- 
gust, retired to his farm. At the news of Bur- 
goync's approach, he had taken the field, and was 
acting under the authority of the assembly of New 
Hampshire. When congress heard of this, a few 
days before the battle, they passed a resolve, that 
the movements of General Stark were "destruc- 
tive of military subordination, and prejudicial to 
the common cause." But by accident the same 
congress heard of his victory. They immediately 



NEW HA3IPSHIRE. 259 

passed a vote of thanks to him, and promoted him chap. 
to the rank of a brigadier general. ^ 

The colonies had long been depressed by dis- 
aster and defeat ; but the decisive victory of Ben- 
nington turned the tide of success, and diffused 
confidence and joy. The prospect of a more glo- 
rious victory burst upon the Americans, and 
crowds of militia flocked to the republican camp. 
It happened, at this time, that there was a change 1777. 
of officers, and General Gates had been appointed 
to the army of the north. Arnold, the thunder- 
bolt of war, whose path was always marked with 
carnage, was also there, and Morgan, already dis- 
tinguished for his brilliant achievements, with the 
patriot of Poland, the brave Kosciusko, were there. 
These several causes combined, produced a gen- 
eral rising of the people at the north, and it 
seemed that every man, who could bear arms, was 
rushing to the camp of Gates. 

Thus General Gates found himself at the head 
of an army of five thousand men. On the 8th of sept.s. 
September he left his encampment at the islands, 
proceeded to Stillwater, and occupied Bemus 
heights. On the twelfth, Burgoyne crossed the tf.' 
Hudson, and on the seventeenth, moved forward to sept. 
Saratoga, and encamped within three miles of the 
American army. The next day occurred the first Sept. 
battle of Stillwater. It began by skirmishes be- 
tween the scouting parties. Each side sent rein- 
forcements to their combatants, respectively, until 
nearly the whole of both armies were engaged. 
The Americans took advantage of a dense wood, 
from which they poured a deadly fire. Unable to 
withstand it, the British lines broke, and the 



260 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Americans, rushing from their coverts, pursued 

..^^ them to an eminence, where, their flanks being 
supported, they ralhed, and, charging in their turn, 

1777. drove the Americans into the woods, from which 
they again poured a fire too deadly to be with- 
stood. Again the British fell back. At every 
charge their artillery fell into the hands of the 
Americans. Night put an end to the conflict. 
The Americans retired to their camp, having lost 
between three and four hundred. The British loss 
was five hundred. Both sides claimed the victory. 
The former gained the advantages of a victory, 
the latter reaped the worst consequences of defeat. 
From this time to the seventh of October, fre- 
quent skirmishes occurred between the two armies. 
On that day a general battle was fought at Sara- 

Oct. 7. toga. It began by an attack of the Americans, 
under General Poor, on the left flank and front 
of the British. At the same time, Morgan made 
an onset upon their right. The action now be- 
came general. The eftbrts of the combatants on 
both sides were desperate, and both displayed 
equal valor. Burgoyne and his officers fought as if 
their all of reputation depended on the issue of the 
day ; while the Americans contested the field like 
men resolved to die rather than surrender their 
native soil to invaders. In fifty-two minutes the 
wii. invading army gave way. The defenders of the 
B^pub- soil pursued them to their entrenchments, and 
ic,206. fQj-ced the guard. Arnold was seen amongst the 
most furious, and seemed to court danger. 
Throughout the whole action, he fought like a 
lion, overturning with fierce slaughter all that 
onnosed his progress. Putting himself at the 



Oct. 17. 



NEW H A 31 P SHI RE. 261 

head of a small band, he rushed into the thickest chap. 

IX 

of the enemy, and carried a portion of the works .^.,J^ 
by storm. His horse was shot under him, and he 
himself wounded. Mounting another, he plunged 
again into the thickest of the fight, but night com- 
ing on. Gates retired ; and the ruin of the British 
army was reserved to another day. 

The Americans, that night, rested on their arms 
upon the field which they had so nobly won. Gates Haie, 
now perceived that a bloodless victory was in his 
power. Burgoyne was completely surrounded and 
hemmed in on every side. His supplies were cut 
off*, and all hope of succor from General Clinton 1777. 
had failed. In this distressed condition, he sum- 
moned a council of war. Their advice was unan- 
imous, and on the seventeenth, the whole army, 
amounting to five thousand seven hundred and fifty- 
two, surrendered, prisoners of war. Their arms, 
thirty-five brass field-pieces and five thousand mus- 
kets, fell into the hands of the Americans. They 
marched out of their camp with the honors of war, 
and thus terminated the vaunted expedition of 
Burgoyne, from which so much was expected, and 
so much was feared. The news of this great vic- 
tory diffiised everywhere the wildest joy. At the 
news of Burgoyne's downfall, Clinton dismantled 
the forts he had taken, and retreated, bearing with 
him the execrations of a people whom he had 
plundered, and a fame for having revived, in an age 
distinguished for civilization, atrocities which be- 
long to the most barbarous times.* 

There no longer remained an army at the north, 
and the theatre of war changed to the south. Tn 177S, 

* WillarJ's Republic, p. 207. 



262 HISTORY OF 

CHAr the battle of Monmouth, a part of the New Hamp- 

^JJ^ shire troops, under Colonel Cilley and Lieutenant 
Colonel Dearborn, behaved with such distinguish- 
ed bravery as to receive the notice and approba- 
tion of the illustrious Washington. At the close 
of that campaign, they retired to huts at Reading. 
France had now become our ally in the struggle, 
and in July, congress received, with inexpressible 

Hak, joy, a letter from Count D'Estaing, announcing 
the approach of a French fleet. On his arrival, 
in concert with General Sullivan, who had com- 
mand of the troops in that quarter, he planned a 
combined attack by land and sea, on the British 
forces at Newport in Rhode Island. A- call upon 
the militia of New England, brought to the standard 
of Sullivan an army of ten thousand men. He 
took a position on the north end of Rhode Island, 
and then moved towards Newport. Admiral 
Howe, having received a reinforcement, appeared 
before the harbor ; but while preparing for battle, 
a storm dispersed both fleets. The ships being 
damaged, Count D'Estaing proceeded to Boston, 
and Sullivan, deserted by the fleet, and finding it 
unsafe to remain longer on the island, retreated to 
his first position. He was pursued and attacked. 
He gallantly resisted, and tlie British were repuls- 
ed with loss. Through the rest of the day he kept 
a bold face towards the foe ; and having deceived 
them into a belief that he was preparing to attack 
them, efiected, in the ensuing night, his retreat 
across the narrow sheet of water which divides 
the island from the main. With great secrecy and 

^p. rlT.' without loss, this retreat was effected. 

The next morning the British discovered, from 



NEW HA3IPSHIRE. 263 

an eminence, several American officers at break- chap. 

IX. 

fast, in the general's quarters. Immediately a cap- .^^.J^ 
tain of artillery was directed to point a cannon at 
the spot. It shattered the leg of John S. Sher- 
burne, at that time aid-de-camp to Gen. Sullivan. 
The massacre at the beautiful settlement of 
Wyoming, now attracted the notice of congress ; 
and General Sullivan was appointed to the com- 
mand of an army of four thousand men,* destined 
to carry terror to the savages. His route lay up 
the river Susquehannah, into the country of the 
Senecas. Into this unexplored region, no troops 
had ever penetrated before. General Sullivan had 
all the difficulties to encounter, which had so often 
proved fatal to the whites in the preceding Indian 
wars. With great judgment and sagacity his expe- 
dition was planned and conducted. The army, pro- 
ceeding in two divisions, one from the Mohawk, the 
other from Wyomhig, formed a junction on the Sus- 
quehannah, and proceeded, on the twenty-second 
of August, towards the lower lake. The Indians, 
in connection with two hundred tories, were drawn 
up in an advantageous position, and had erected for- 
tifications to oppose their progress. These were 
vigorously assaulted by General Sullivan, and 
after a slight resistance, the enemy gave way, and 
disappeared in the woods. The army advanced 
into the western part of New York. The Indians 
deserted their towns, which had begun to assume 
an appearance of civilization, never before found 
in the wilds of North America.f The houses were 
commodious, the apple and peach trees numerous, 
the crops of corn abundant. These were all de- 

* Hale, II. t Hale, II., p. 5-5. 



264 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, stroyed. Not a vestige was left of all that gave 

V— .-iw, beauty to the wilderness, and distinguished the 

Senecas from the ruder tribes around them. Hav- 

v"^ ing accomplished this work of vengeance, Sullivan 

Oct. returned to Easton, in Pennsylvania. Capt. Cloyes 

and Lieutenant McAulay had fallen, and with them 

he had lost forty men, by sickness and in battle. 

In the following year the New Hampshire regi- 
ments were stationed at West Point. Afterwards 
1780. they marched into New Jersey, where Gen. Poor 
knap, died. He had accompanied the expedition of Sul- 
Sept. 8. livan as far as the Genesee, and had defeated the 
savage enemy. Afterwards he commanded a brig- 
ade under Major General La Fayette. The win- 
ter of this year was passed by the New Hampshire 
troops in a hutted cantonment near the Hudson 
river, at a place called Soldier's Fortune. At the 
close of this year, the three regiments were reduc- 
ed to two, commanded by the colonels Scammell 
and George Reid. The next year a part of them 
went to Virginia, and were present at the capture 
of the second British army, under Earl Cornwallis. 
Here the brave and active Colonel Scammell fell. 
They were quartered at Saratoga and on the IMo- 
hawk river, until the decisive battle of Yorktown 
drew from the king of England an acknowledg- 
ment that his revolted colonies in North America 
were free and independent states. 

In the moment of victory, and while possessing 
a boundless influence over the army, the incorrupt- 
ible Washington returned his sword to his country 
and retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon, 
where his ashes now repose. Ambition will for- 
ever be awed and admonished by such an example. 



CHAPTER X. 

Depreciation of continental money — Elforts of Congress to present the 
depreciation — Proscription of persons and confiscation of estates — Con- 
stitution proposed — rejected by the people — Another proposed — Revolt of 
sixteen towns — Blonetary distress — Insurrection — the insurgents made 
prisoners — Union of the states — Convention of delegates at Philadel- 
phia — The Federal Constitution — submitted to the people — Convention 
assembles at Exeter to ratify the Federal Constitution — Conflicting opin- 
ions — Joshua Atherton's speech against the adoption of the Constitution — 
It is finally ratified — Washington chosen President of the United States — 
John Langdon elected President of New Hampshire — Washington visits 
New Hampshire — Progress of settlements — Increase of population — Sup- 
port of common schools — Education — Establishment of post offices — State 
debts — Revision of the State Constitution — Josiah Bartlett — Formation 
of parties — Republicans — Federalists — Depreciation of paper money — The 
privateer ship M'Clary — Case of the prize ship Susanna — Remonstrances 
agiynst the acts of the general government — Jay's treaty — Progress 
of settlements — Lake Winnipiseogee — A medical school established — 
Troubles with France — Laws for the observance of the Sabbath— Death of 
AVashington — Administration of John Adams — Organization of parties — 
Manufactures — Coos county — Scenery around the mountains. 

To provide the " sinews of M^ar," congress chap. 
was compelled, after finding itself wholly cut off _^__ 
from every other resource, to issue continental 1^^^- 
bills of credit, based, not on specie, but on distant 
and problematical taxation. The patriotism of 
the people — the same self-sacrificing spirit that 
caused them to shed their blood for the sacred 
cause of liberty — for a short period sustained the 
credit of these worthless emissions. The colonies 
were soon flooded with them : they were the only 
currency in circulation. Those who had specie 
carefully hoarded it up. As the government, how- 
34 



266 HISTORY OF 

CHAP ever, became more settled and stable, and the 

_!__ people withdrew their attention from public affairs 
to their own private interests, these bills fell into 
gradual but fatal discredit. The authorities of 
the several states attempted to revive public con- 
fidence. Laws were enacted in New Hampshire 
making them legal tender, and if they were refused 
by a creditor, that refusal discharged the debt. 
Such an enactment, it may be readily supposed, 
increased rather than alleviated the general dis- 
tress. Creditors, by fraud or legal subterfuge, 
avoided it. In the meantime increasing effort 
was made by congress to stop the depreciation. 

1777, Among other things, they issued a circular, which 
they ordered to be read to the congregations, 
throughout the states, assembled for religious 
worship. The circular was an ingenious and elab- 
orate argument in favor of a paper currency, which 
it called " the only kind of money which coultl not 
make to itself wings and fly away." 

The distress became so alarming that a conven- 
tion was held at Springfield, composed of delegates 
from tlie New England states and New York. 
The convention memorialized congress, praying 
that body, for the relief of the public difficulties, 
to establish a system of taxation, and open loan 
offices in the several states. Congress, in answer, 
recommended a plan of confiscation, which by seve- 
ral states was followed. 

177S. New Hampshire proscribed seventy-six persons, 
who had for various causes left the state, and for- 
bade their return. The property of twenty-eight 
of them was confiscated, and all previous attach- 
ments thereby dissolved. This measure, doubtfully 



NEW H A lyi P S H I R E . 267 

justified by extreme necessity, did not result so chap. 
beneficially as was anticipated to the treasury of ..^^J^ 
the state, as the net profit was comparatively un- 
important. 

While these estates were in process of settle- 
ment, the continental bills continued to fluctuate, 
occasionally rising slightly in nominal value, but 
always followed by a rapid depreciation, until, 
as by common consent, they disappeared, and spe- 
cie, from the public mint, took their place. -* 

A large convention of delegates assembled for 1779. 
the purpose of framing and recommending to the 
people a state constitution ; but it was deficient 
in so many respects that it was rejected by the 
popular vote almost unanimously. Another con- 17S1. 
vention was afterwards called, which occupied two 
years. The first plan proposed by that body was 
rejected, but the second was generally approved 
and adopted. The present constitution partakes 
of all the general features of that, but has received 
such modifications as the growing importance of 
the state and increase of population have demanded. 

To this convention sixteen towns, on the east- 17S2. 
ern side of the Connecticut river, refused to send 
delegates, on the ground that the war had dis- 
severed all colonial ties and responsibilities, that 
the inhabitants reverted to a "state of nature," 
and that each town had the entire right to govern 
itself as an independent municipal community. 
The people on the western side of the river, having 
adopted the same doctrine, had cut themselves 
loose from New York, and formed an independent 
state, which was called Vermont. These sixteen 
recusant towns immediately desired to be admitted 



268 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, into the confederacy, which was granted by the 
.^_1_ legislative body of the new state. New Hamp- 
shire refused to resign its claim, or to acknowl- 
edge the novel doctrines upon which the secession 
was based ; and the consequence was a long and 
bitter controversy, which soon involved so many 
collateral questions that New York and Mas- 
sachusetts were brought into the contest. After 
much discussion, the controversy was closed by 
the decision of congress. Vermont demanded 
admission into the Union, and threatened to make 
terms with the British government if that admis- 
sion was withheld. Congress required, as an indis- 
pensable preliminary, that the revolted towns should 
be restored to New Hampshire ; to which Vermont 
consented. The assembly of that state, during 
the absence of a portion of its members, passed an 
act drawing its eastern boundary by the western 
bank of the Connecticut, and relinquishing all 
claim to jurisdiction without that limit. After 
some slight opposition, and a manifestation of dis- 
content, the people returned to their allegiance to 
New Hampshire. Thus happily was settled a 
controversy which, at one period, threatened to 
renew the bloody scenes of the revolution. 

At the close of the war congress found itself 
burthened with a heavy debt, and with no imme- 
diate means of discharging it. But the creditors 
of the government were suffering and clamorous, 
and must be relieved. The debt might have been 
speedily cancelled by the adoption of a system of 
imposts ; but the powers of that body were confined 
within the narrowest limits, and they had no au- 
thority to adopt that course. They were, therefore. 



NEW HA Mr SHIRE. 269 

compelled to put a tax on polls and estates. The chap. 
result was most disastrous to the people, and to S-^.^ 
none more than to those of New Hampshire. The 
courts of law were thronged with unhappy dehtors 
and importunate creditors — business stagnated — 
and distress was general. "^ 

To meet the evil, conventions, composed of the 1785. 
discontented, were held, and the assembly urged 
to emit large issues of paper money, based on real 
estate, and drawing interest. The assembly did 
all in their power to relieve the public suffering. 
They passed an act to call in all treasury notes 
issued by the states, " and give certificates for 
the interest and fifteen per cent, of the principal 
annually; which certificates were to be received 
by the treasurer for taxes, in lieu of, and equal to 
silver and gold." But farther than this they re- 
fused to proceed. They exhorted the people to 
industry and economy, as the only sure remedy for 
the public evils. They assured them that their 
true wealth was m the soil ; that attention to agri- 
culture would soon alleviate the monetary troubles 
of the state ; and that the granting of their petition 
would aggravate rather than cure their embar- 
rassments. » 

Massachusetts, about this' period, passed an 
act providing that cattle, and other articles enu- 
merated, should be a legal tender on executions, 
and be received at an appraisement of impartial 
men under oath. In compliance with a petition 
from certain parts of the state, the assembly of 
New Hampshire enacted a law somewhat similar. 
The import of it was that the debtor might tender 
to his creditor, on an execution, real or personal 



270 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, estate sufficient, at a fair valuation, made by three 

X • • • 

._^J^ sworn appraisers, to cancel the debt, and if it were 

refused, the body of the debtor was to be ever after 
exempted from arrest. The tender, however, if re- 
fused, did not discharge the debt. The creditor 
could keep it alive by taking out an alias within one 
year after the return of any former execution, and 
might levy on any estate that he could find, the debt 
in the meanwhile drawing six per cent, interest. 
This act continued in force five years, although it 
was justly complained of as unconstitutional and as 
a direct violation of the obligation of contracts. Its 
indirect effect was to secure the insolvent debtor 
in the actual, though not always nominal, posses- 
sion of property which, by right, belonged to his 
creditors. But there was another and still more 
general result produced by it ; — those who had 
specie refused to give it circulation while the 
17S6. tender-act was in force. And though the legisla- 
ture, to encourage its importation into the coun- 
try, exempted from port duties those vessels that 
should bring only gold and silver, and one half the 
duties where one half the value of the whole cargo 
was gold and silver, yet it tended in no manner 
to relieve the monetary distress. 

The demand for paper money still continued, 
and became increasingly clamorous. A large por- 
tion of the press united with political demagogues 
to keep the public excitement upon this subject to 
its highest tension. The most extravagant argu- 
ments were urged by the zealots of that period. 
It was said that the people had a right to require 
their representatives to stamp value upon any- 
thing that was impressible, and that by passing 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 271 

an act of outlawry upon any person who should chaf 
refuse to receive it, depreciation would be forever _,-!_ 
prevented. As the confidence of this party in its 
numerical strength increased, a portion of them 
extended their demands. They required the abo- 
lition of the inferior courts, an equal distribution 
of property, and a release from all debts. 

To test the real sentiments of the people, the 
assembly proposed, for the public consideration, a 
plan for the emission of paper currency to the 
amount of fifty thousand pounds, to be loaned at 
four per cent., on real estate, and to be a tender 
in payment of taxes ; and desired a return of the 
votes of each town at the ensuing session. 

The leaders of the excitement were not satisfied 
with this proposition. They considered it, or pro- 
fessed to consider it, merely a manoeuvre to calm 
the public ferment. Stirred by the wild and vague 
rumors of Shay's rebellion in the sister state of 
Massachusetts, which was then at its height, 
about two hundred persons, principally from the 
western part of Rockingham county, assembled at 
Kingston, about six miles from Exeter, the seat of 
government. Armed with swords, clubs, scythes, 
and muskets, they marched, to the beat of a drum, 
into the meeting-house where the assembly were 
in session. The president, Gen. John Sullivan, 
with great moderation stated the reasons why 
their petitions could not be granted, and that the 
assembly could accede to nothing while threatened 
by an armed body. After some unimportant de- 
monstrations on the part of the insurgents, they 
were struck with panic at the cry, " Bring out the 
artillery!" and retired for the night. In the morn- 



272 HISTORY OF 

CHAP ing, a numerous body of militia and a company of 

_JJ^ horse entered Exeter, and, when the insurgents 
appeared, rushed upon them, took about forty 
prisoners, without bloodshed, and dispersed the 
others. 

The assembly deemed mildness the wiser policy, 
and therefore dismissed all but six. These were 
required to recognise for their appearance at the 
next superior court, and their bonds were dis- 
charged. 

The firm and prudent course of the government 
thus crushed a political movement which in time 
might have swept away all law, and introduced a 
popular despotism far worse than that which had 
been fastened upon the state by a foreign power. 

1787. The plan for a paper emission, proposed by the 
assembly, was rejected by the popular vote, and 
thus the whole question put at rest. 

17SS. The commencement of the year 1788 presented 
one of the most important periods in our history. 
Having passed through the flames of a revolution, 
and obtained from Great Britain, at vast expense 
of blood and treasure, a recognition of their rights 
as an independent people, the next care of our 
forefathers was the establishment of a constitu- 
tion for the common government. Bound together 
during the war by a consciousness of the common 
danger and the necessity of mutual aid, the states 
were enabled, even under the imperfect govern- 
ment they had formed at the commencement of the 
revolution, to act harmoniously together in the 
great contest which led to its consummation. But 
no sooner had the common enemy relinquished his 
foothold on our soil, a treaty of peace been con- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 273 

eluded with the power of which we had so recently chap. 

been unprivileged subjects, and the necessities of '^ 

war ceased to operate upon our national councils, 
than the people began to discover the necessity of 
a more perfect system of government. The con- 
federacy of 1778 was calculated only for a tem- 
porary existence. It neither defined with sufficient 
clearness the rights of the citizen, nor traced with 
the necessary precision the dividing line which 
separated the powers of the individual states and 
the confederacy itself. The necessity of a gov- 
ernment based upon more fixed and enduring 
principles, was admitted by general consent ; and 
there was scarcely a dissenting opinion in relation 
to the propriety of establishing a permanent union 
of the states, secured and protected by a general 
government, strong enough to protect our rights 
and our territories from the encroachments of for- 
eign powers, and liberal enough in its provisions 
to compensate the people for the hardships and 
dangers they had endured in their struggle for 
independence. 

The credit of making the first movement towards 
the accomplishment of this object, belongs to Vir- 
ginia. As early as 1786 that state formally 
proposed a convention of commissioners from the 
several states, 'Mo take into consideration the 
trade and commerce of the United States; to con- 
sider how far a uniform system, in their com- 
mercial intercourse and regulations, might be 
necessary to their common interest and permanent 
harmony ; and report to the several states such an 
act relative to this great object, as, when unani- 
mously ratified by them, should enable the United 
35 



274 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. States, in congress assembled, effectually to pro- 
_!__ vide for the same." By subsequent agreement, 
this convention was liolden at Annapolis, in Mary- 
land, in September of the same year. Delegates 
attended from five states only — Virginia, Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York — 
and in consequence of the small number of states 
represented, deemed it improper to proceed with 
the important business with which they had been 
intrusted. Sensible, however, of the necessity of a 
re-organization of the government, they drafted an 
address to the people, expressing their views on 
that subject, detailing the defects of the arti- 
cles of confederation, and recommending a general 
convention of the states, to be holden at Phila- 
delphia, on the second Monday of May, 1787. 
Congress, having seconded this recommendation, 
delegates from all the states, except Rhode Island, 
assembled at the appointed time in Philadelphia, 
and on the seventeenth day of the following Sep- 
tember, agreed upon a Federal Constitution. This 
instrument was soon after, by the votes of eleven 
states, in congress assembled, submitted to the 
several states for their ratification. 

However unanimous the people might have been 
in the sentiment, that a national government, rest- 
ing upon some more substantial basis than the old 
articles of confederation, was essential to the pub- 
lic welfare, the convention of the states was 
divided by many conflicting opinions in relation 
to the principles upon which that government 
should be founded. A small portion of its mem- 
bers, permitting their partiality for a strong gov- 
ernment to lead them beyond those restraints 



NEW HAMPSHIEE. 275 

which a regard for the great principle of equal chap. 
rights would seem to have dictated, favored as a .^-J^ 
matter of sound policy the establishment of a 
president and senate, to hold office during life, as 
the only means of protecting the government from 
those ruinous fluctuations of sentiment, which 
they contended would be the effect of a more re- 
publican form. On the other hand, a portion of 
its members were unwilling to invest the govern- 
ment which was to be the result of their delibera- 
tions, with the powers which are now universally 
conceded to be indispensably necessary to the 
common welfare in peace and the common de- 
fence in war. A vast variety of questions, all of 
them important, and some of them involving the 
peculiar interests of large sections of the country, 
successively claimed the attention of the conven- 
tion. At times almost despairing of being able to 
effect the purposes for which they were assembled, 
it was only by mutual concessions that its mem- 
bers were able to agree upon a constitution, which 
with slight amendments, now forms the connect- 
ing bond of twenty-six independent and^prosperous 
states — a constitution which is at once venerated 
by our citizens and regarded with admiration by 
the world. 

When the question of ratification was submitted 
to the states, the same objections which had 
embarrassed the deliberations of the convention 
which framed the constitution, were urged to pre- 
vent its adoption. The result was doubtful, and 
the whole community watched the deliberations of 
the state conventions with intense anxiety. The 
convention for the state of New Hampshire, 



276 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, assembled at Exeter, on the second Wednesday 
_1__ of February, 1788. Eight states, some of them 
by small majorities, had given their assent to the 
constitution. The ninth only was necessary to 
its ratification. At this crisis, therefore, all eyes 
were directed to New Hampshire, as the state 
upon whose decision the fate of the constitution 
seemed in a great measure to depend. Its assent, 
on the one hand, would settle the question in its 
favor ; and its dissent, on the other, in the then 
divided state of public opinion, might create a 
popular impulse against it, fatal to its final success. 
The convention was composed, to a great extent, 
of men of the first talents and respectability ; men 
whose services, during the trying times of the rev- 
olution, had aflTorded them the advantages of expe- 
rience, and gained them the respect and confidence 
of the people. General John Sullivan was chosen 
its President, and such men as John Langdon, 
Josiah Bartlett, John Taylor Giiman, John Pick- 
ering, Samuel Livermore, Joshua Atherton and 
Joseph Badger were numbered among its members. 
In the disputes which followed the organization of 
the convention, Sullivan, Langdon, Pickering and 
Livermore took the lead in favor of the ratifica- 
tion, and Joshua Atherton, of Amherst, was the 
principal speaker against it. Among other objec- 
tions raised against the constitution, and urged 
with great earnestness, was that clause permitting 
the abolition of the slave trade after 1808,* and 
prohibiting any action on the subject, beyond a 
trifling tax on their importation, before that time. 

* Journal of the Convention which adopted the federal constitution, 1788, 
and which revised the constitution of New Hampshire, 1799. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 277 

Mr. Atherton opposed this clause with great chap. 
warmth; and the following extracts from his re- , — J^ 
marks are believed to be the only relic of the 
debates of the convention, which has descended 
to the present time. 

" The idea that strikes those who oppose this 
clause, so disagreeably and forcibly, is that if we 
ratify the constitution, we become conseniers to 
and partakers in the sin and guilt of this abom- 
inable traffic in slaves, at least for a certain period, 
without any positive stipulation that it shall even 
then be brought to an end. We do not behold in 
it any assurance that ' an end is then to be put to 
slavery.' Congress may be as much puzzled to 
put a stop to it then as we are now. This clause 
has not secured its abolition. 

*' We do not think we are under any obligation 
to perform works of supererogation in the refor- 
mation of mankind ; we do not esteem ourselves 
under any necessity to go to Spain or Italy to 
suppress the Inquisition of those countries ; or 
of making a journey to the Carolinas to abolish 
the detestable custom of enslaving the Africans ; 
but, sir, we will not lend the aid of our ratifica- 
tion to this cruel and inhuman merchandise, not 
even for a day. There is a great distinction 
between refusing to take any part in a barbarous 
violation of the laws of God and humanity, and 
guarantying its existence for a term of years. 
Yes, sir, it is our full purpose to wash our hands 
clear of it ; and however unconcernedly we may 
remain spectators of such predatory infractions of 
the laws of our nation — however unfeelingly we 
may subscribe to the ratification of man-stealing, 



278 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, with all its baneful consequences ; yet I cannot but 

1_ believe, in justice to human nature, that if we 

reverse the consideration, and bring the effects of 
this claimed power somewhat nearer to our own 
doors, we shall form a more equitable opinion of 
its claim to ratification. 

" Let us figure to ourselves a company of these 
man-stealers, well equipped for the enterprise, 
arriving on our coast. They seize and carry oflT 
the whole or a part of the town of Exeter ; parents 
are taken and children left ; or, possibly, they 
may be so fortunate as to have a whole family 
taken and carried oflT together by these relentless 
robbers. What must be their feelings in the 
hands of their new and arbitrary masters ! Drag- 
ged at once from everything dear to them ; stripped 
of every comfort of life, like beasts of prey, they 
are hurried on a loathsome and distressing voyage 
to the coast of Africa, or some other quarter of 
the globe, where the greatest price may waft them; 
and here, if anything can be added to tbeir mis- 
eries, comes on the heart-breaking scene ! a 
parent is sold to one — a son to another, and a 
daughter to a third. Brother is cleft from brother 
— sister from sister — and parents from their dar- 
ling offspring. Broken down with every distress 
that human nature can feel, and bedewed with 
tears of anguisl), they are dragged into the last 
stage of depression and slavery, never, never to 
behold the faces of one another again." 

As the discussion of the provisions of the con- 
stitution progressed in the convention, the result 
became so doubtful that its friends were unwilling 
to hazard an immediate decision. At their request. 



. - N E W H A M r S II I R E . 279 

the convention adjourned, to re-assemble at Con- chap. 
cord in the month of June following.* In the ^1_ 
meantime the subject was fully discussed among 
the people. Objections which had existed to a 
few features of the constitution, were, in many 
instances, gradually overcome by a candid con- 
sideration of the benefits which would result from 
its adoption ; in many cases, instructions adverse 
to the constitution were withdrawn; and when the 
convention again assembled, it was with a brighter 
prospect, and a greater harmony of sentiment 
among its members. A session of four days was 
found sufficient to complete the deliberations of 
that body. On the last day of its session, the 
opponents of the constitution having in turn 
become anxious for the result, and made an unsuc- 
cessful attempt to procure a second adjournment, 
the main question was taken. The result was the 
ratification of the constitution, fifty-seven mem- 
bers voting in its favor and forty-six against it.f 
The convention, however, proposed a series of 
amendments to the constitution, providing, among 
other things, that no standing army should be kept 
up in time of peace without the consent of three 
fourths of the members of both houses — that the 
general government should make no laws touching 
religion, or infringing the rights of conscience — 
nor disarm any citizen, on any otlier ground than 
actual rebellion. 

The convention excited an interest, with which 
the proceedings of no other deliberative body in 
this state have ever been re^iarded. The galleries 
of the church, where it assembled, were thronged 

* Journal of the Convention. f Ibid. 



280 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, with spectators, and its members were surrounded, 
.^.J^ not only by large numbers of their own constitu- 
ents, but by individuals from distant states — 
engaged, some of them, in watching their deliber- 
ations, and some of them, no doubt, in efforts to 
influence the result. Even at this early period, 
purified as the moral "atmosphere of the country 
had been by the storms of a revolution, the most 
opposite motives might very probably have influ- 
enced our citizens to labor for the same result. 
Of the multitudes who thronged around the meet- 
ings of the convention, many, doubtless, supported 
the constitution from a selfish regard to private 
interests of their own ; while many opposed it 
from sentiments of the purest patriotism. Specu- 
lators, who had bought, at a ruinous discount, 
from the ofiicers and soldiers of the revolution, a 
large amount of continental certificates, natu- 
rally looked to the establishment of an energetic 
general government as the only chance for their 
redemption. This class of men, therefore, regarded 
the constitution with favor, rather as the sun which 
was to bring their own golden harvests to matu- 
rity, than the means of dispensing the blessings 
of equal rights and free institutions upon a great 
nation. So true it is, that the best and wisest 
measures are sometimes sustained from venal and 
unworthy motives, while the most discreet and vir- 
tuous men in the community, from mistaken views, 
may be found teuipornrily arrayed in the support 
of erroneous principles. 
^ The result of the convention was received with 

general satisfaction by our citizens. Even where 
the constitution had met with the strongest oppo- 



NEW HAMrSIIIRE. 281 

sition, public opinion seemed gradually to have chap. 
inclined in its favor, and, in many sections of the .^_J_ 
state, the news of its adoption was received with 
demonstrations of joy, second only to those with 
which the people received the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence itself. 

In 1788, John Langdon succeeded General 
Sullivan in- the presidency of the state. During 
the same year, in anticipation of the organization 
of the general government, John Langdon and 
Paine Wingate were elected members of the 
United States senate by the legislature, and 
Samuel Livermore, Abiel Foster and Nicholas 
Gilman were elected representatives to congress, 
by the people. 

Geor^-e Washinsiton liavlaor been called to the 

o o o 

presidency by the unanimous vote of the electoral 
colleges throughout the Union, the first congress, 
on the fourth of March, 1789, assembled at the 
city of New York. The wheels of the general 
government having now been put in motion, the 
credit of the country revived ; commerce received 
a new impulse from its legislation, and a perma- 
nent revenue v.as provided, sufficient not only to 
defray the expenses of the government itself, but 
also gradually to extinguish the national debt 
which the war had imposed upon the country. 
Such, indeed, was the favorable change, produced 
by the early action of the government, in the 
affairs of the country and the people, as gradually 
to reconcile most of those persons to the constitu- 
tion who had been the most honest and zealous in 
opposing it. The excitement which had at one 
time prevailed in relation to it, subsided almost 
36 



X 



2S2 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, immediately upon its adoption, and a difference of 
opinion as to the construction of the constitution 
took the place of that which had prevailed upon 
the question of its ratification. Those persons 
who had opposed the constitution, on the ground 
of its impairing in too great a degree the power of 
the states, naturally favored a rigid construction 
of the powers conferred upon the general govern- 
ment. Those, on the other hand, who desired a 
sti'ong government, favored a liberal construction 
of the constitution, and sought to gain from it, by 
implication, powers for the general government 
which had not been conferred by its letter. To 
these causes may be traced, to a great extent, the 
party divisions which have so long existed in this 
country. 

In 1789 John Sullivan was again elected to the 
presidency of the state. During the year he had 
the pleasure of welcoming to the state the illustri- 
ous Washington, who, having visited New Eng- 
land on a tour of observation, extended his visit to 
New Hampshire. His approach was hailed with 
demonstrations of joy, both from the state authori- 
ties and the people. He arrived at Portsmouth 
on the thirtieth of October, having been met at the 
state line by the principal state officers, a regi- 
ment of cavalry, and a large number of citizens. 
His entrance into town was announced by the 
ringing of bells and the roar of cannon, and during 
his stay he received all those tokens of respect 
which are due from a free and grateful people 
to a distinguished public benefactor. His visit 
gathered new interest from the fact, that scarcely 
seven years had then elapsed since the closing 



NEW H A BI P S H I K E . 283 

scenes of the revolution. His companions in arms chap. 
were, most of them, still in active life. Hundreds .J-J.^ 
of patriots, who with him had relinquished the 
comforts of their quiet firesides, and hazarded their 
lives to secure, by a long and arduous contest, the 
blessings of an independent government and a free 
constitution, gathered eagerly around the man, 
whose paternal affection for his troops, and inesti- 
mable services to the public, had entitled him to 
be deemed at once the father of the country he 
had saved and the armies he hnd commanded. 

From the close of the revolution, an increased 
regard for schools and institutions of learning 
began to be cherished among our citizens. During 
the present year, an academy was incorporated at 
New Ipswich, being the second institution of the 
kind in the state. The burthens occasioned by 
the war having been in some measure removed 
from the people, their attention was more generally 
directed to the importance of common schools, and 
more liberal provision was made for their support. 

Towards the closfi of the year, printing was first 
introduced, on rather a limited scale, at Concord. 
George Hough, who was during his life engaged 
more than fifty years in the typographic art, came to 
Concord from Windsor, Vermont, where he had 
been engaged, in company with Alden Spooner, in 
the publication of the Vermont Journal. His 
printing-press, the first established in this state 
north of Exeter, was set up in a small building in 
front of the ground now occupied by the state- 
house ; and the first work issued from it was 
"Doddsley's Christian Economy," which was pub- 
lished in October. On the 5th of Januarv, of the 



284 ' HISTORY OF 

CHAP, following year, he commenced the publication of 
..^_]_ a weekly paper, called the " Concord Herald," 
which, with several changes in its title, was con- 
tinued till 1805. Such was the first small begin- 
ning of printing in Concord, where it has since 
increased to such an extent, as to entitle that place 
to a high rank among the principal publishing 
towns in the country. 
1790. The election of president, in 1790, was warmly 
contested, though upon personal and local grounds, 
rather than the prevalence of any divisions of polit- 
ical sentiment among the people. No choice 
having been made by the people, the duty of elect- 
ing a chief magistrate devolved upon the legisla- 
ture; and Josiah Bartlett was elected, though two 
of his competitors, John Pickering and Joshua 
Wentworth, had each received a larger number of 
popular votes than himself The election, how- 
ever, was approved by the people, and President 
Bartlett was, for nearly four years, the chief mag- 
istrate of the state. Having been honored, a short 
time previous, by an nppoiatmont to tho office of 
chief justice of the superior court, — an appoint- 
ment doubly complimentary to hun, as the only 
instance in ovir history in which a member of the 
medical profession had been elevated to a station 
requiring such high legal attainments, — that office 
became vacant upon his election to the presidency 
of the state. At the commencement of his admin- 
istration, John Pickering, who had been his com- 
petitor for the chief magistracy, received, at his 
hands, an appointment to that important station, 
which he filled, with honor to himself and advan- 
tage to the state, for several years. 



NEW HA Mrs III RE. 285 

From the census which was taken this year, it chap. 

X 

appeared that the population of the United States .^1,^ 
had increased, since tlie commencement of the rev- 
olution, from less than three to nearly four mil- 
lions. New Hampshire had more than kept pace, 
in the growth of her population, with the country 
at large. At this period she had one hundred and 
forty-two thousand inhabitants ; having increased, 
notwithstanding the dangers and discouragements 
incident to a seven years' war, nearly sixty thou- 
sand in the fifteen preceding years. Not only 
were her towns on the seaboard and in the inte- 
rior strengthened by the natural growth of their 
population, but multitudes of adventurers from the 
northern section of Massachusetts, invited by tlie 
cheapness of her lands and the extent and fertility 
of her unoccupied domains, had found their way 
along the valley of the Connecticut, nearly to its 
sources, and, after occupying its intervales, grad- 
ually extended their settlements among the hills 
and valleys of the back country. Points, at an 
earlier period apparently inaccessible, were reach- 
ed by the advancing tide of emigration; and neither 
the want of roads, the absence of schools and reli- 
gious privileges, or the other innumerable priva- 
tions incident to a settlement in the wilderness, 
v/ere sufficient obstacles to stay its progress. 
Even the recesses of the White Mountains, whose 
snow-clad summits the Indians looked upon, during 
their early conflicts with the white men, as an 
eternal barrier against their intrusion, were reach- 
ed at this early period. 

During the session of the legislature in 1791, a 1791. 
law was passed, requiring the assessment of a tax 



286 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of seven thousand five hundred pounds sterHng 
,_j.J^ upon the several towns in the state, in proportion 
to their taxahle property, for the support of com- 
mon schools. Hitherto the measures taken hy the 
state, for the establishment of schools and institu- 
tions of learning, while they proved that its citi- 
zens were not unmindful of the advantages of 
education, had possessed too little energy for the 
general diffusion of those advantages through 
the community. A law had passed, as early as 
1693, requiring each town to " provide a school- 
master." In this act Dover was expressly ex- 
cepted, being at that time too much impoverished, 
by the frequent incursions of Indian enemies, to 
sustain any considerable burthen for any other 
purpose than its own defence. In 1719, towns 
with fifty or more freeholders were required to be 
" constantly provided with a schoolmaster to teach 
reading and writing;" and towns containing one 
hundred or more freeholders were also enjoined 
to maintain a grammar-school, under the instruc- 
tion of " some discrete person, of good conversa- 
tion, well instructed in the tongues." Considerable 
advantage resulted from these laws, though the 
poverty and scanty population of some of the 
towns rendered them entirely inoperative, and the 
want of proper books and competent instructors 
everywhere united with the insecurity of the times 
in retarding the progress of popular education. 
Reading and writing wQi'e, in those early days, 
the only branches of instruction in our common 
schools. The Bible and Psalter, and the New 
England Primer, were the only reading books; and 
those who aspired to the more liberal art of chirog- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 287 

raphy, instead of white paper, very generally made chap. 
use of white birch bark. The first spelling-book __^ 
generally used was not introduced till 1770, and 
though very humble in its merits, when compared 
with those of the present day, it was considered, 
even then, a perfect epitome of all that was essen- 
tial to a common education. 

Some idea of the scientific attainments of our 
ancient rulers may be formed from the circum- 
stance, that, in a proclamation for a fast in 16S1, 
they assign as a reason for it, " that aivfid porten- 
tous blazing star, usually foreboding sore calam- 
ity to the beholders thereof." And some idea of 
the acquirements of the people, at about the same 
period, may be gathered from the fact, that, on a 
petition for protection against the Indians, ad- 
dressed to the general court of Massachusetts in 
1690, signed by three hundred and seventy-four 
inhabitants of New Hampshire, about one fourth 
part of the whole number made their marks. The 
signatures of a large portion of the remainder, to 
use a favorite expression of Governor Andros, 
resembled " the scratch of a bear's paw," rather 
than the neat chirography of the present age. 
Very few of our leading men wrote a tolerable 
hand, and scarcely a schoolboy in the country, at 
the present day, would suffer by a comparison of 
the performances of his pen with those of our early 
secretaries of state. 

The schools which had grown up in our princi- 
pal towns prior to the revolution, under the influ- 
ence of the early laws for their encouragement, to 
which I have referred, and which had been attend- 
ed with considerable advantages, had been almost 



288 HISTORY OF 

CHAF. universally prostrated by the turmoils and dangers 
_^_ of the war. The act of this year was the begin- 
ning of a series of decided measures, which have 
established the common school system, in New 
Hampshire, upon a firm and imperishable basis, 
and extended its advantages to the rich and the 
poor — the citizens of its most populous and flour- 
ishing towns, and the scattered dwellers among its 
mountains. Under the influences of a reviving 
interest in the cause of education, academies and 
public schools, generously endowed and liberally 
supported, sprung up at short intervals, and within 
a brief period of time, in the principal towns and 
villages of the state. During the year 1791, 
academies were incorporated at Atkinson and 
Amherst. The establishment of these invaluable 
institutions in different sections of the state, and 
in sufficient numbers to extend the advantages of 
an excellent elementary education in all direc- 
tions, and furnish an ample supply of well qualified 
instructors for our common schools, produced at 
once a decided and favorable change in the schools 
and the literary characteristics of the people. A 
taste for learning was suddenly diffused through 
every part of the community; habits of reading and 
investigation became general; schools revived; the 
patronage of the higher institutions of learning 
swelled with the rising tide of intellectual improve- 
ment, and the means of at least a tolerable edu- 
cation were gradually extended, not only to every 
town, but nearly to every family in the state. 

While the legislature of 1791 was attending to 
the interests of education, it was not unmindful of 
the importance of facilitating the means of com- 



NEW HAMTSHIRE. 289 

mimication. At this time, nothinsj like an efficient chap. 
post-otlice establishment existed in the country. _IJ^. 
Two or three weeks were generally necessary for 
the transmission of letters from Philadelphia to 
ihe borders of this state ; and all organised means 
of spreading intelligence stopped within a few 
miles of the sea-coast, leaving the inhabitants 
cf the interior almost entirely dependent upon 
chance for those facilities for communication, 
which the present well organised post-office estab- 
lishment has since extended to every corner of our 
broad country. Even an ordinary stage-coach 
was an accommodation, which, at that time, was 
scarcely to be seen in our principal cities ; and a 
humble post-rider, journeying leisurely along the 
seaboard, and occasionally divel'ging a few miles 
into the country, for a considerable time performed 
the whole mail service of this state. To remedy 
these evils, the legislature of 1791 passed a law, 
establishing " four routes for posts, to be there- 
after appointed to ride in and through the interior 
of the state." 

By the provisions of this salutary law, each post- \ 
rider was to perform his route once in two weeks, 
reversing his course of travel once a fortnight. 
For the encouraQ;ement of this humble mail es- 
tablishment, and in consideration of an express 
provision that all public letters, and other matters 
belonging to the state, should be carried free of 
postage, the legislature granted twelve pounds per 
annum to the post-riders on the first, second and 
fourth routes, and nine pounds to the post-rider 
on the third. The postage, which on single letters 
was fixed at sixpence for every forty miles, and 
37 



290 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, foiirpeiice for any number of miles under forty, 
^-^ was granted exclusively to the post-riders. Post- 
offices were established at Portsmouth, Exeter, 
Concord, Amherst, Dover, Keene, Charlestown, 
Hanover, Haverhill and Plymouth; and the several 
postmasters were allowed to charge a compensation 
of two pence on every letter and package which 
should pass through their respective offices. 

While the legislature was discharging the duties 
of the post-office department for its own constit- 
uency, the business of the patent-office as yet 
remained in its hands. The same legislature, 
accordingly, passed an act, " giving to John 
Young the exclusive right to build chimneys, 
agreeably to an invention of said Young — accord- 
ing to a description of said invention lodged with 
the secretary of state." 

The legislation of this, as well as a few pre- 
ceding and subsequent years, evinces at once 
great economy in the legislature and great finan- 
cial distress among the people. In 1791, the 
salary of the governor was fixed at two hundred 
pounds, of the chief justice at one hundred and 
seventy pounds, and the secretary of state at fifty 
pounds per annum. Laws, granting relief to 
towns — directing the treasurer not to issue extents 
for outstanding taxes — providing for the receipt of 
specie in payment of public dues, at the rate of one 
pound for two in state notes — granting reviews 
and staying, for a limited time, all proceedings 
against bondsmen, were of frequent occurrence, 
and indicated, in characters not to be mistaken, 
the severity of those financial embarrassments, 
which the expenses of the war had imposed upon 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 20l 

the people of New Hampshire, and which neither chap. 
the unrivalled industry nor the reviving enterprise _,!J^ 
of its citizens had yet been able to remove. 

In the financial struggle which these embarrass- 
ments forced upon them, our legislature frequently 
assumed powers, which no similar bodies have 
recently exercised; while the general government 
having been but recently, and as yet but partially 
organised, the exercise of many of its functions 
devolved upon the states. The legislation of 
1791 was, in many respects, a matter of curious 
interest to those who have regarded the legisla- 
tion of our states in those narrower channels only 
within which it is at present confined. The legis- 
lature of this state, at that time, exercised not only 
the proper powers of the legislature, and to some 
extent those of the judiciary also, but also, as we 
have seen, discharged on a humble scale, suited to 
the depression of its financial aflfairs, the important 
duties now confided to the patent-office and post- 
office department of the general government. Its 
exercised powers were more extensive than those 
which any legislative body in the country has 
assumed for the last forty years ; and if the una- 
nimity of the people, in the elections of that period, 
is to be taken as an indication of the public feel- 
ing, it exercised them in such a manner as to pro- 
mote the public welfare and gain the general 
confidence of the community. 

During this year, with a view to elevate the 
character of the medical profession, to discourage 
quackery, and prevent unqualified pretenders to 
medical skill from imposing themselves upon the 
community, the legislature incorporated the New 



292 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Hampshire Medical Society. Josiah Bartlett, the 
.J-.!^ worthy cliief magistrate of the state, was elected 
its first president. 

Some proceedings of the Icgislatm'e of this year, 
in relation to the " assumption of the state debts," 
render it necessary briefly to refer to the measures 
of the general government upon that subject. On 
the 19l,h of January, 1790, soon after the meet- 
hm of the first congress, Alexander Hamilton 
introduced his celebrated scheme for the assump- 
tion of the state debts. In compliance with his 
recommendation, and after a spirited opposition in 
both branches of congress, a bill, assuming the 
debts of the several states, to the amount of 
$21,500,000, became a law on the 4th of August, 
1790. By the provisions of this law, the debts of 
New Hampshire, which had contributed $375,055 
more than her equitable share to the means of 
conducting the war, were assumed only to the 
amount of $399,009; v/liilc, on the other hand, the 
debis of New Yoriv, wliicii liad expended $874,846 
less than her proportion of the expenses of the 
same war, were included to four times that 
amount. This law met with a serious opposition 
from all parts of the Union — in some instances 
founded upon the injustice of its details, and, in 
others, upon the broad ground of its unconstitu- 
tionality. 

In November, 1790, the house of delegates, in 
Virginia, passed a series of resolutions, declaring 
the assumption of the state debts to be a violation 
of the constitution, and a flagrant invasion of the 
plainest principles of justice. In June, 1791, the 
le2:islature of New Hampsliire, surpassed by no 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 293 

body of men in the country in their general CHAr. 
attacliment to the administration, adopted, by a .^-J^ 
unanimous vote, a spirited memorial to congress 
on the same subject. In tliis memorial they set 
fortli, that this state had contributed, to its utmost 
abihty, both men and money for the successful 
prosecution of the late war, and thereby accumu- 
lated a heavy debt ; and that, considering this state 
alone responsible for that debt, by " burthensome 
taxes" upon themselves, its citizens "had suc- 
ceeded in paying not only the interest of its debt, 
but likewise a great part of its principal," — that 
having, by these means and by the " most rigor- 
ous economy, extinguished a large part of their 
debt, they had received, with general disappro- 
bation and uneasiness, that part of the late act of 
congress, in which it is proposed to assume 
$21,500,000 of the debts of the several states, and 
make provisions for ftinding the same." They 
complained that, by this measure, an increased 
debt was brought upon the general government, 
involving the necessity of an increased revenue; 
and that, " what was still more objectionable and 
disgusting to the citizens of ISiew Hampshire," 
while that state had contributed one twenty-eighth 
part of the expenses of the war, the sum proposed 
to be assumed of the debts of the state was less 
than one seventieth part of the whole; thereby 
throwing $000,000 of the debts of other states 
upon the state of New Hampshire. In conclusion, 
they solemnly " remonstrated against the said act, 
so far as it relates to the assumption of the state 
debts," and requested that, " if the assumption 
must be carried into effect, New Hampshire might 



294 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, be placed on an equal footing with other states." 
_i._ Opposed as they then were in their political 
attachments, it is a singular circumstance, that, at 
this early period, Virginia and New Hampshire 
occupied the same ground upon this important 
question. Though generally belonging in name 
to that federal party, which was by many deemed 
to favor a concentration of all political power in 
the general government, the people of New Hamp- 
shire showed, on more occasions than one, a fii'm 
attachment to democratic principles, and a patri- 
otic zeal for their rights as citizens of a sovereign 
state. 

In consequence of the demands of a rapidly 
increasing commerce, a bank was, in 1792, estab- 
hshed at Portsmouth, with a capital of $160,000, 
to continue fifty years. 

A period of seven years having expired from 
the first adoption of the sttite constitution, a con- 
vention of delegates assembled, near the close of 
the year 1791, for the purpose of undertaking .its 
revision. The Hon. Samuel Livermore, who had 
been a distinguished member of the previous con- 
vention, was elected its president. A variety of 
amendments, many of them important, were 
attempted at this time. Among them were, the 
erasure of the sixth article of the bill of rights, 
the total abolition of religious tests, and the exclu- 
sion of attorneys at law from seats in the legis- 
lature. None of these amendments were adopted. 
The fact that they were proposed, however, indi- 
cates, at once, something of the spirit of the 
times and the condition of the people. Embar- 
rassed with those debts, which the total depre- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 295 

ciation of the currency of the revokition had im- chap. 
posed upon them, their jealousy of lawyers may ^Ij^ 
be considered a fearful indication of the pecuniary 
distresses with which they were afflicted ; while the 
proposition to expunge all religious tests from the 
constitution, shows that the spirit of religious 
toleration had already begun to shed its ennobling 
influences upon a people, who, in after times, have 
become so distinguished for its exercise. 

It was not till its third session, holden in May, 1792. 
1792, that the business of the convention was 
completed. The constitution, as revised, was 
marked by very few important changes. The title 
of the chief magistrate was changed from jwesi- 
dent to governor, the more readily to distinguish 
that officer from the head of the general govern- 
ment. The senate, under the old constitution, had 
consisted of twelve members, elected by the several 
counties — five for the county of Rockingham, two 
for Strafford, two for Hillsborough, two for 
Cheshire, and one for Grafton. Under the new 
constitution the number of senators remained the 
same, but a provision was made for the division 
of the state into twelve equal districts, upon the 
basis of taxation, for their election. The basis of 
representation in the house of representatives and 
all the main features of the constitution remained 
unchanged. 

As the constitution of 1784, thus modified, has 
remained unchanged for a period of nearly fifty 
years, and is now the basis of our legislation and 
the corner-stone of our government, a brief synop- 
sis of its most striking features can neither be 
unprofitable nor misplaced. 



296 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. The executive power of the state is vested in a 
-—1-^ governor and five coimcillors, elected annually by 
the people. All judicial officers are appointed by 
the governor and council, and removable upon 
impeachment, originating in the house of repre- 
sentatives, and heard and determined by the sen- 
ate. Both branches of the legislature are judges 
of the elections, returns and qualification of their 
own members. The power of pardoning offences 
against the criminal laws of the state is vested in 
the governor who is to exercise it only with the 
consent of the council. Every bill or resolve 
must, before it becomes a law, be presented to the 
governor; who, if he approves, is to sign it, and if 
he disapproves, is to return it to the house where 
it originated, with bis objections. Two thirds of 
both branches of the legislature, however, concur- 
ring in the passage of any bill or resolve returned 
and objected to by the governor, it becomes a law 
without his assent. All money bills must, by the 
constitution, originate in the house of representa- 
tives, though the senate may propose amendments. 
No member of the legislature can be arrested or 
held to bail, on any mesne process, during his 
attendance upon its business, or on his way to or 
from its sessions. Every male citizen of the state, 
excepting persons convicted of infamous crimes 
or supported at the public expense, was allowed 
the privileges of a freeman. 

The convention which assembled soon after the 
close of the revolution, proposed to limit the num- 
ber of representatives to fifty, to be duly appor- 
tioned among the several counties. This pro- 
position was rejected by a large majority of the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 297 

popular vote. With a large share of the population chap. 
thinly scattered over a wide expanse of territory — .^^J-^ 
with a large number of new settlements springing 
up in the midst of the wilderness, sprinkling the 
valley of the Connecticut, from the southern line 
of the state to its source, and gradually finding 
their way among the hills and mountains of the 
northern counties — the people w isely judged that 
a representation so limited, would be altogether 
inadequate to the purposes for which it was de- 
signed. It would have placed the legislature at 
too great a distance from a large portion of the 
people, to understand their wishes, to judge with 
accuracy of their interests, or act with any degree 
of certainty in accordance with their will. These 
considerations doubtless suggested the excellent 
system established by the present constitution, 
under which every town, having one hundred and 
fifty rateable polls, has its representative, while 
the larger towns are allowed an additional repre- 
sentative for every three hundred polls in addition 
to the above number, and the smaller towns are 
classed in such a manner as to extend the privi- 
lege of direct annual representation to every citizen 
in the state. "^ 

During the year I7D3, Elder Jesse Lee came 
from A^irsinia to the New Eimland states, and, 
after remaining some time in Massachusetts, vis- 
ited New Hampshire, and prepared the foundation 
for the establishment of the first Methodist socie- 
ties which existed within its limits. 

The legislation of this period partook of the 
simple and economical spirit which characterized 
the citizens. Our revenue tlicn, as it has been 
38 



298 HISTORY OF 

at all times, was small when compared with our 
resources ; and the expenditures of the state were 
regarded with a watchful eye and managed with a 
prudent hand. By the rules of the house for this 
session, it was provided that no member should be 
absent, without leave, niore than a quarter of an 
hour at a time, on pain of forfeiting his travel and 
incurring the censure of the house. Every day's 
absence of a member, even upon leave, was scru- 
pulously noted by the clerk, in a roll kept for that 
purpose, and made the foundation for a corre- 
sponding reduction in his pay. In a legislature 
governed by such primitive views of economy, it 
may be safely inferred that few laws were enacted, 
and those plain in their provisions and suggested 
by the wants of the people. 
1793. In June, 1793, the legislature assembled at 
Concord. Josiah Bartlett had been re-elected 
governor, with great unanimity ; being the first 
person who had discharged the duties of chief mag- 
istrate under the new constitution. The smallness 
of the popular vote at this and the preceding elec- 
tion, as well as its unanimity, affords us some clue 
to the political characteristics of the time. The 
people, at this period, seem hardly to have enter- 
tained any strongly marked diversity of political 
opinions. Their elections turned rather upon the 
merits of the candidates for public favor, than the 
importance of particular and conflicting senti- 
ments in relation to public affairs. The high 
places of the government were generally filled by 
men who had, in one way or another, evinced an 
honest devotion to the cause of liberty in the days 
of the revolution ; and the opinions of these men, 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 299 

even when on some points they differed from those chap. 
of their fellow-citizens, were lost sight of in a SJ^ 
universal attachment, which existed in the minds 
of all classes of the people, for the soldiers and 
statesmen, who had proved faithful to their coun- 
try in the most eventful crisis of its history. Of 
this class of men, Josiah Bartlett was among the 
most distinguished. With an imperfect education, 
he had commenced the practice of medicine, at 
Kingston, as early as 1750. During the preva- 
lence of a malignant distemper, in 1754, he pur- 
sued a course of practice so universally successful 
as to give him at once a high rank in his pro- 
fession. Promoted to several offices, at different 
times, by Governor Wentworth, he was, in Febru- 
ary, 1775, deprived of all his commissions, as a 
zealous whig, whom the frowns of the royal gov- 
ernor could not intimidate, or his favor secure. 
In 1776 he was a delegate to congress, and was 
among the first to give his vote and his signature 
to the Declaration of Independence. For several 
years he was a judge of one or the other of the 
state courts, and, in 1790, was raised to the chief 
magistracy of the state. Honest and unimpeach- 
able in his private character, simple and yet dig- 
nified in his manners, deservedly popular in the 
community in which he lived, and firm and inflex- 
ible in support of the principles of that Declaration 
of Independence to which he gave the sanction of 
his name, he passed the noonday of his existence ^ 
amid the storms and clouds of a revolution ; and 
the unclouded light of popular favor, shining upon 
him in the evening of his life, was his just and 
appropriate reward. 



# 
300 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Towards the close of the year, Governor Bart- 

_11_ lett was iiiducedj by declining health, to resign the 

high and responsible station in which the people 

had placed him; and his retirement to private life 

was followed not long afterwards by his death. 

The ocean of political discussion, which has 
since been agitated by so many successive and 
almost perpetual storms, had hitherto rested in 
unruffled repose. The popularity of Washington, 
and the mildness and impartiality with which he 
had administered the government, had united those 
parties, which circumstances had already created, 
in support of his measures and of his re-election. 
The eftects of the revolution, however, which had 
recently occurred in France, soon reached our 
own sliores, and disturbed the harmony of our 
citizens. The sympathies of a portion of the peo- 
ple were naturally enlisted in favor of the people 
of France, whose struggles for liberty reminded 
them of their own. Another portion, influenced 
by the exaggerated accounts of the excesses of 
their former allies, which continually reached them, 
regarded them witli horror, and sympathized with 
Great Britain in her hostile operations against 
them. The former class, embracing most of the 
more ardent friends of state sovereignty and demo- 
cratic principles, assumed the name of republi- 
cans. The latter class, including most of those 
who had favored an imilalion of the aristocratic 
, qualities of the British government in the estab- 
lishment of our own, were called federalists. The 
first clnss, many of them, maintained that we were 
bound by the generous aid which France had af- 
forded us in our contest with Great Britain, to 



NEW HA^IPSIIIRE, 301 

make common cause with lier, in defending her chaf. 
rights against the aggressions of the same arbi- ^.^ 
trary power. Many of the people, of both parties, 
were in favor of the strict neutrahty of position 
which was maintained by General Washington 
and his administration. On the other hand, a 
portion of the federal party, more violent than the 
rest, seemed ready at any moment to form an open 
alliance with Great Britain, and aid her in her 
attacks upon a people, whc^ had been so recently 
the benefactors and faithful alhes of this'country. 

The excitement generated by this state of things 
extended to New Hampshire, in common with other 
states ; and opposing parties sprmig into existence, 
as the immediate and necessary consequence. The 
federalists, however, for a long time maintained an 
indisputable majority. John Taylor Gilman, a 
gentleman of great personal inilaence and un- 
spotted private character, who vras for a long time 
the acknowledged lioad cf t!ie federal party in 
i H cw liampsinre, was, iii kio^<, eieoiea governor. 
He retained this position for a period of no less 
than eleven years, and for tlie same period his 
party remained in the ascendency. 

The history of tliis state, under the adminis- 
tration of Governor Gilman, was marked by few 
public events of importance. Our legislation re- 
lated principally to the ordinary municipal regula- 
tion of the little communities into which we were 
divided ; and our political conflicts, though such 
occasionally existed among us, sprung rather from 
a diversity of opinion in relation to national affairs, 
than any general dissatisfaction with the manner 
in which the concerns of the state itself were con- 



302 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ducted. To the popular manners of Mr. Oilman, 
,JJ.^ and the general fairness with which he managed 
our affairs, rather than any deep-rooted attach- 
ment to federal views of government, must be 
attributed the repeated re-elections of that gen- 
tleman, and the long ascendency of his party in 
this state. 

The legislature of 1794 held its June session 
in the meeting-house at Amherst. During that 
session, a law was enacted, providing for the 
redemption of " certain evidences of debts due 
from the state, and making compensation for the 
same." This law provided for the redemption of 
the state notes and state orders, at the rate of fif- 
teen shillings to the pound ; of the bills of the "new 
emission," so called, at five shillings to the pound ; 
and of the "copper-plate notes," and every other 
species of bills "not before enumerated," at the 
rate of Jive shillings for every hundred dollars ! 
All outstanding taxes, and the stock of the state 
in the United States' funds, were pledged for that 
purpose, and the treasurer was authorized to bor- 
row twenty-five thousand pounds for two years, at 
six per cent, interest, for the same object. All 
notes, of a less denomination than three dollars, 
were to be redeemed at the above rates in specie, 
and one half of the residue to be paid in specie, 
and the other half in state notes, payable in 
eighteen months, and bearing interest at the rate 
of six per cent. 

The entire prostration of the credit of the states, 
during the revolution, and the almost incalculable 
losses it imposed upon the community, were never 
better illustrated, than by the passage of this law. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. . 303 

Immediately after the commencement of hos- chap. 
tilities in 1775, this state issued paper bills for the -SJ^ 
payment of the troops it furnished for the common 
defence, and for the support of the government, 
promising to redeem them in gold and silver. 
These bills, based upon nothing but the faith of 
the state, were, for the purpose of giving them 
greater currency, made a legal tender for the pay- 
ment of debts. In spite, however, of all the 
efforts of the legislature, their value constantly 
depreciated. In 1780, the general government 
issued a new paper currency, called the "new 
emission," declaring one dollar of that emission to 
be worth forty dollars of the old ; and sent to each 
state its proportion, guarantying its redemption. 
That proportion of this first national paper cur- 
rency which fell to this state, was finally redeemed, 
as I have before related, while large sums of its 
other bills and evidences of indebtedness were 
bought up by the treasurer, at the rate of one 
hundred dollars for one. 

The notes and bills of this state were greatly 
increased in their nominal amount, by the large 
sums issued to its officers and soldiers, to com- 
pensate them, from time to time, for the rapid 
depreciation of its paper already in their hands. 
Thus, by a fruitless attempt to remedy the evils 
of a depreciated currency of this state, its debts 
were immensely increased, and its securities 
plunged still lower in the scale of worthlessness 
and depreciation. 

When these facts arc known, the law of 1794, 
for the payment of the state debt, may be more 
readily reconciled with the principles of justice. If 



304 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, a mere fraction only of the nominal amount of 
J^l^ the currency of which that debt consisted, was ten- 
dered for its redemption, it should be remembered 
that it was issued from necessity, passed dis- 
credited and depreciated from the treasury, and 
circulated among the people only for an incon- 
siderable percentage on its apparent value. One 
lesson, however, stands out in bold relief from the 
history of these transactions. It is that neither a 
noble excuse for issuing a currency which consists 
in the mere evidence of debt, nor arbitrary laws to 
sustain its credit with the people, can give it either 
stability or value, v.ithout the existence of a proper 
and certain fund for its redemption. 

The second session of the legislature was this 
year convened at a period somewhat earher than 
usual, in consequence of a controversy arising 
between this state and the general government, in 
relation to a seizure made by an armed privateer 
ship, belonr>;in<T to citizens of this state, dnrin?^ the 
earlier period of the rcvoluticnary contest. 

Soon after the commencement of the war, 
several patriotic citizens of Portsmouth had fitted 
out a privateer ship, called the McClary, under the 
sanction of the legislature of the state. The 
McClary having captured an American merchant 
ship, called the Susanna, bound to an enemy's 
port, and laden with supplies, the vessel and cargo 
v,ere regularly condemned in the courts of this 
state, and adjudged to the captors as their lawful 
prize. From this decision, the laws of this then 
sovereign state permitted no appeal. Elisha 
Doane and others, the owners of the vessel, sub- 
sequently entered a complaint before a committee 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 305 

of conorress, and the wliole matter was referred to chap. 
the court of appeals who reversed the judgment of ,^,-.,!^ 
the state court. After the adoption of the federal 
constitution, the district court of the United States 
confirmed the decision of the court of appeals, and 
ordered the value of the Susanna and cargo, with 
interest, amounting to $32,121 36 in the whole, 
to be refunded to the original owners of that ves- 
sel. The legislature having already remonstrated 
against any interference of the general government 
in this case, as a " violation of the dignity, sove- 
reignty and independence of the state," and the 
late owners of the McClary having petitioned for 
the " aid and advisement of the legislature in the 
premises," the governor declared that the council 
had concurred with him in requesting a meeting 
of the IcEfislature before the time to which it stood 
adjourned. 

The legislature, having taken the whole contro- 
versy into consideration, again prepared a spirited 
remonstrance against the interference of the courts 
of the general government in this affair, as a 
" violation of state independence, and an unwar- 
rantable encroachment in courts of the United 
States." After stating, at considerable length, the 
facts above recapitulated, the remonstrance pro- 
ceeds in the following spirited language : 

" This state had a right to oppose the British 
usurpations in the way it thought best ; could make 
laws as it chose with respect to every transaction, 
where it had not explicitly granted the power to 
congress ; that the formation of courts for carry- 
ing these laws into execution, belonged only to the 
several states ; that congress might advise and 
39 



306 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, recommend, but the states only could enact and 
'^ carry into execution ; and that the attempts, repeat- 
edly made, to render the laws of this state in this 
respect null and void, is a flagrant insult to the 
principles of the revolution. 

"Can the rage for annihilating all the power of 
the states, and reducing this extensive and flour- 
ishing country to one domination, make the admin- 
istrators blind to the danger of violating all the 
principles of our former governments, to the hazard 
of convulsions in endeavoring to eradicate every 
trace of state power, except in the resentment of 
the people ? Can the constitutional power of 
congress, in future, be no other Way established, 
than by the belief that the former congress always 
possessed the same ? Can the remembrance of the 
manner of our opposition to tyranny and the grad- 
ual adoption of federal ideas be so painful as to 
exclude, (unless forced into view,) the knowledge 
that congress in its origin was merely an advisory 
body ; that it entirely depended upon the several 
legislatures to enforce any measures it might 
recommend ?" 

This remonstrance, strong and spirited as it was 
in language, and founded, as it was believed to 
be, upon an invasion of the rights of this state, 
seems to have produced no effect. But it demon- 
strated that this state, however federal it might 
have been in name, and however faithful it may at 
all times have shown itself to the constitution, was, 
from the beginning, jealous of the exercise of doubt- 
ful powers by the general government, and among 
the first to protest against every invasion of the 
reserved rights of the states. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 307 

In 1794, an extensive bridge was constructed chap. 
over the Piscataqua river, in the vicinity of Ports- ^'^ 
mouth, which, in its cost and difficulty of construc- 
tion, exceeded every enterprise of the kind which 
had been attempted in the country. It consisted 
of three sections, two of them horizontal and the 
third arched, extending from Newington to Dur- 
ham, and presenting a surface of planking nearly 
half a mile in length. Its construction required 
five thousand tons of timber, eighty thousand feet 
of plank, twenty tons of iron, and eight thousand 
tons of stone, and cost the large sum of sixty-two 
thousand dollars. The work excited general ad- 
miration at the time, and had a favorable influence 
upon the commerce of Portsmouth, by diverting 
to it a portion of the country trade which had long 
been engrossed by the larger commercial towns of 
Massachusetts. 

During the following year, (1795,) an academy 
was incorporated in Gilmanton, endowed with a 
fund consisting of six thousand dollars in money 
and seven thousand acres of land. A similar in- 
stitution had been, the preceding year, established 
at Haverhill. Both institutions have remained in 
existence to the present time ; both have received 
a steady and liberal support ; and both have been 
eminently useful in the great work of disseminat- 
ing useful knowledge in the community. Among 
the earliest literary establishments 4n the state, 
their patronage has since been divided with numer- 
ous seminaries of a similar character But yet, 
as the landmarks of the early origin of a general 
interest in the cause of education in this state, 
these institutions, and the few of the same charac- 1795. 



308 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ter which preceded them, deserve a particular 
_^:^. notice in our history. They were not only honor- 
able indications of that rising taste for education 
to which they owed their establishment, but active 
agents in its cultivation. Our early academies, 
by calling the public attention to the great benefits 
of a general system of instruction, and preparing 
a multitude of competent instructors, gave new 
life to our common school system, and diffused its 
advantages through every part of the state. 

During the year 1795, the question of the rati- 
fication of Jay's treaty agitated this state, in com- 
mon with the rest of the Union. Great Britain, 
while a controversy w ith France was pending, had 
adopted a series of arbitrary restrictions, almost 
entirely destructive of the American commerce 
with the French republic. At the same time, she 
had retained possession of several military posts 
in the western portions of our country, under color 
of a variety of unfounded pretences, and in open 
violation of the treaty entered into at the close of 
the revolution. For the purpose of arranging 
these difficulties, which had at one time threatened 
to result in open war, John Jay had been appointed 
an envoy extraordinary to the court of St. James. 
Mr. Jay having succeeded in negotiating a treaty, 
the senate was called upon, in 1795, to enter into 
a consideration of its merits. A long and angry 
discussion ensued. A senator from Virginia vio- 
lated the injunction of secrecy which rested upon 
the senate during the debate, and procured its 
general publication in the newspapers of the day. 
It was at once denounced by many for its sup- 
posed partiality to Great Britain and injustice to 



1 



N E AV II A 31 P S H I R E . 309 

France. Some of its provisions were assailed in chap. 

the most intemperate manner, and a general ex- L_ 

citement prevailed throughout the country. At 
Portsmouth, in this state, a town meeting was 
holden, and voted an address to the president 
against the adoption of the treaty. A counter 
address having been prepared and signed by a 
large number of respectable citizens, a mob 
assembled in the streets, insulted many of the 
signers, broke their fences and windows, injured 
their ornamental trees, and attempted, by threats 
and violence, to gain possession of the counter 
address, and prevent its transmission to the presi- 
dent. The disturbance was, however, of short 
duration, and was succeeded by a more candid 
consideration of the merits of the treaty in ques- 
tion. The senate at length ratified it, by a vote 
of twenty to ten ; the Honorable Jolni Langdon, 
one of the senators from this state, voting against 
it. The president, after duly examining its merits, 
gave it his assent, and the result proved that, 
whatever objectionable features it might have con- 
tained, it was calculated to be highly beneficial in 
its influence upon the commerce and general inter- 
ests of the country. 

Considering the excitement which this subject 
created, it is a singular fact that the legislature of 
this state, at its session in November, 1795, passed, 
by an unanimous vote, an answer to the address 
of Governor Gilman, approving, in the strongest 
terms, of the treaty. In that document, they ex- 
pressed an undiminished " confidence in the virtue 
and ability of the minister who negotiated the 
treaty ; the senate who advised its ratification, and 



310 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, in the president, the distinguished friend and father 
.Jj^ of his country, who compUed with this advice." 

Tuftonborough, lying in that portion of the 
ancient county of Strafford, which is now known 
as Carrol* county, and Danbury, in the county 
of Grafton, were this year incorporated. The 
former town stretches along the northeast shore of 
the Winnipiseogee lake, whose arms, extending far 
into the town, present, from the neighboring hills, 
some of the most delightful landscapes to be 
found in the country. It is diversified with an 
agreeable interchange of " rough and pleasant 
grounds," and presents a great variety of soil. It 
is washed on one side by a broad expanse of water, 
and divided between level grounds and abrupt ele- 
vations on the other. The scenery on the shores 
of lake Winnipiseogee has been delineated both 
with pen and pencil, and is destined hereafter to 
become celebrated in song, and to afford the rich- 
est subjects to the painter. The lake itself more 
than realises the impassioned description of Loch 
Katrine. f True, it has no barren wastes, of heath 
and rock, environing its shores ; but it has a broad 
expanse of blue and limpid waters, sprinkled with 
cultivated islands, and surrounded with a belt of 
as luxuriant and productive soil as New England 
can boast. Its broad arms, extending in every 
direction, diversifying with mimic " promontory, 
creek and bay" the country upon its borders, 
and, ever and anon, flowing in a broad and unruf- 
fled current far into the interior, present, in a fine 
summer's day, some of the most agreeable pros- 

* Laws of New Hampshire, November session, 18 10, p. 455. 
t As described by Sir Walter Scott, in the " Lady of the Lake." 



, NEW HAMrSIlIKE. 311 

pects that ever delighted the eyes of the traveller, chap. 
" Now here, now there," tiie beautiful congrega- .^^J^ 
tion of waters breaks upon his view — one moment 
partially lost sight of, as the road deviates from 
its banks — the next, bursting upon him in all 
its splendor. Something of the romantic charac- 
ter of this lake and the surrounding region has, 
doubtless, been sacrificed to the progress of agri- 
cultural improvement. When the verdant fields 
around it were the forest home of savage tribes — 
when the Indian's canoe sprung unmolested over 
its bosom, and the smoke of his camping fires 
curled above its beautiful islands, it was a scene 
which his untutored imagination might readily 
have looked upon as the chosen residence of the 
Great Spirit. Not less agreeable must the pros- 
pect it presents at the present day appear to the 
eye of civilized man, who at once delights in the 
charms of nature, and rejoices in the progress of 
civilization and improvement in the neighborhood 
of her loveliest works. 

On one side of the water rises Red Hill, which 
affords a prospect of the lake and all the surround- 
ing country. Scarcely a stone's throw from the 
summit is the little lake Squam, its waters clear as 
crystal and sprinkletl witii green islands — some 
of them no wider than a small grass-plot — some 
spreading out into fields and pastures, with hills 
that send forth many a rivulet into the bosom of 
the lake. Ascending towards the summit of the 
mountain, the trees, unlike those on the White 
Mountains, which arc gnarled and stinted, appear 
slender and graceful, and seem to stand for orna- 
ment amidst the blucberrv and sweet-fern, which 



X. 



312 HISTORY OF ♦ 

CHAP, bear their fruit and fragrance almost to the moun- 
tain's top. For weeks the traveller may daily and 
hourly discover some new attraction in these sweet 
abodes of nature. To-day, a clear atmosphere 
presents everything in the brightest hues, and 
charms the mind with the distinctness of every 
object. To-morrow, a change of atmosphere lends 
to everything a change of hue, and flings over all 
a new enchantment. Nothing can exceed the 
splendor of sunrise on this mountain, in a calm 
summer's merning. The stillness of the place — 
the placid serenity of the waters — the varying 
positions of objects, as the morning mists rise, and 
change, and pass aw^ay before the sun, now brood- 
ing low on the waters, now sailing slowly over the 
islands, and wreathed in ever- varied forms around 
their green promontories ; these and other features 
present to the mind a landscape abounding in that 
wild beauty which exists where art has not usurp- 
ed dominion over nature. Here some bright basin 
is seen to gleam — and anon, the eye catches some 
islet, half veiled in mist and reddening with the first 
blush of morning. Sometimes, by a pleasing delu- 
sion, the clouds become stationary, and the island 
itself appears to move, and to be slowly receding 
from the veil of mist. The eye dwells with delight 
on the villages of the wide country, and the hun- 
dreds of farms and orchards which adorn the whole 
extent of the landscape. The fertile islands of 
the lake are scattered, as if to delight the eye ; 
and when clothed in the deep green of summer, or 
waving with luxuriant harvests, they seem like 
floating gardens mirrored in the waters. The hills 
and woods, the shores and eddies, the coves and 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 313 

green recesses — the farms and houses — sometimes 
retiring from the waters — sometimes approaching 
to the margin of the lake — ail form a picture 
fitted for the lover of nature to linger and dwell 
upon with varied and ever new delight. The 
course of the lake winds at last and is lost among 
the distant mountains. 

One solitary family arc the tenants of Red Hill — 
the lone sentinels of these romantic scenes. It is 
composed of a mother, a son and daughter. They 
gain a scanty subsistence by cultivating a few 
acres of land near the summit, whicli seem aliens 
among the rugged features of the mountain. The 
mother and daughter have descended from the 
mountain but a few times during their whole lives, 
and are unconscious of most of the important events 
of the world. 

Such is a faint sketch of the scenery around lake 
Winnipiseogee, where are exhibited, in fine con- 
trast and bright association, the wild and rude with 
the beautiful — the austere with the lovely — widely 
extended fields, hills and mountains, embosoming 
a placid lake and islands. It may be doubted 
W'hether anything in Italian, Alpine, or Highland 
scenery exceeds the magnificence of the landscape 
which is here spread out. Yet the lake reposes, 
the mountain stands against the sky, the woods 
and fields bloom, and exhale and breathe their fra- 
grance through year after year of the silent lapse 
of time, scarcely tempting a traveller's fo-ot, or 
wooing an admiring eye, of the thousands that seek 
novelty and repose amidst the beauties of nature. 

The political discussions of the preceding year, 
were not entirely without their influence upon the 
40 



314 HISTORY OF 

CHAP election of 1796. Though there was no regularly 
_I^_ organized opposition to the re-election of Gov- 
1798. ernor Gilman, a considerable strength was arrayed 
against him at the polls, and his majority was re- 
duced to less than five thousand votes. 

In 1796, the charter of the first New Hampshire 
turnpike, extending from Concord to the Piscat- 
aqua bridge, in the immediate vicinity of Ports- 
mouth, was granted by the legislature. It was 
promptly commenced and completed, and was but 
the first of a long series of thoroughfares, of the 
same character, established by the enterprise of a 
few public spirited individuals, and branching into 
every section of the state. Sometimes lucrative, 
sometimes a heavy charge upon their proprietors, 
these early enterprises were conducted with a de- 
gree of vigor and economy seldom witnessed in 
such undertakings, when prosecuted at the public 
charge. 
179?. During the year 1798, chiefly through the exer- 
tions of Dr. Nathan Smith, of Cornish, a medical 
department was connected with Dartmouth col- 
lege. Without the benefits of early education, and 
yet possessed of distinguished skill, his talents and 
industry had given him a rank in his profession, 
which others, possessed of much greater advan- 
tages, have striven for in vain. For some years 
he was the only medical professor connected with 
the institution ; and yet, difiicult as the task must 
have been, unaided and with very limited pecu- 
niary resources, he gave it a highly respectable 
character. The medical college, thus established 
and recommended to the public favor, has since 
maintained a permanent and useful existence. In 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 315 

1810, by the aid of the legislature of the state, a chap. 

neat medical college building was erected ; and 

the medical school, furnished with an extensive 
cabinet, and a valuable chemical laboratory, and 
placed under the guidance of medical skill of the 
highest order, soon took rank with the most respec- 
table institutions for medical instruction in the 
country. 

The act passed at the December session of the 
legislature for 179S, regulating the apportionment 
of public taxes, taken in connection with similar 
acts of a more recent period, shows some singular 
changes in the relative wealth of our towns. Ports- 
mouth, our only commercial town of any impor- 
tance, stood then, as now, at the head of the list, 
paying $26,33 in the thousand, of all public assess- 
ments. Next, and in the following order, stood 
the fine agricultural towns of Gilmanton, London- 
derry, Weare, and Carrington ; the first paying 
$19,58, and the last $13,35, in the thousand. By 
the apportionment act passed in 1840, twelve 
towns pay more than ten dollars each, in every 
thousand of the state taxes. Weare, Barrington, 
and Londonderry are excluded from this list alto- 
gether, and eight towns now pay a larger pro- 
portion of the public expenses than Gilmanton. 
Dover now ranks second on the list, and Nashua, 
Concord and Claremont follow in their order. 
These changes, however, are far from indicating 
any reduction in the property of our agricultural 
towns. Towns, which in 1798 were either thinly 
settled or not settled at all, have advanced with 1798. 
rapid strides in wealth and population, and now 
sustain a large share in the burthen of taxation, 



316 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, which formerly rested on the agricultural sec- 
i_ tions of our southern counties. Our trade has in- 
creased, and large manufacturing establishments 
have sprung up among us; doubling, and, in some 
instances, more than quadrupling the wealth and 
population of our principal towns, and bringing 
upon them, with their increasing prosperity, an 
increased participation in the public burthens. 

The insolent bearing of the French government 
towards our own, encouraging as it did constant 
aggressions upon our commerce, and manifesting 
the most hostile views, by peremptorily ordering 
its minister to demand his despatches and leave our 
country, had at this time produced a general ex- 
citement throughout the Union. Three American 
envoys having reached Paris, charged with the 
management of a pacific negotiation, had been met 
with a demand for money, as a prerequisite to its 
commencement. This insult roused the whole 
country. With scarcely a distinction of party, 
"Millions for defence, but not one cent for trib- 
ute," was the prevailing sentiment of the day. 
1799. In this state of things, the legislature of 1799 
adopted an address to President Adams, express- 
ing the warmest resentment at the arbitrary course 
pursued by the French government. In the sen- 
ate it passed unanimously. In the house, four 
individuals voted against it — not because they saw 
any palliation for the conduct of France, but be- 
cause the prevailing party in the legislature had 
introduced into the address laudatory expressions, 
extendinij to all the acts of an administration, whose 
policy in many respects they could not approve. 
In December, 1799, an act passed^, providing for 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 317 

the better observance of the Sabbath. It provided chap. 
for the appointment of tything-men, and armed S^^ 
them with power to stop all persons travelling on 
the Sabbath, and interrogate them in relation to 
their business, names, and place of residence. 
Persons giving false answers were subjected to 
severe penalties. This law, exceptionable in itself, 
was rendered still more so by the oflicious inso- 
lence of many of the officers entrusted with its 
execution. Proud of a little brief authority, they 
seized upon the reins of the traveller's horse with 
an air of authority v.hich sometimes approached 
nearer to the ungracious rudeness of highwaymen, 
than the mild deportment of conservators of reli- 
gious observances and civil order. Scenes of 
arbitrary violence on the one hand, and of boister- 
ous resistance or criminal evasion on the other, 
were of constant occurrence ; and it soon became a 
matter of doubt, whether the law tended more to the 
proper observance of the Sabbath, or its shameless 
violation. Like many other laws, passed by pious 
and well-meaning men, whose zeal in the cause of 
virtue has for a moment blinded their judgment in 
relation to the proper means for its advancement ; 
the law in question, though unquestionably es- 
tablished from pure motives, produced most unfor- 
tunate results. It became at first unpopular, then 
a nullity, and was soon stricken from the pages of 
the statute book by the general consent of the com- 
munity. Such has been the general fate of laws, 
which have attempted, by fines and punishments 
and vexatious prosecutions, the correction of evils 
which are more properly left for correction to the 
untrammelled force of public opinion. 



318 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. So closed the eighteenth century — a period full 
,^^S^ of interesting events — an era which must take 
precedence over all others in the future history of 
our country. At its commencement, New Hamp- 
shire was a humble settlement, with a population 
thinly scattered along a narrow extent of seaboard, 
harassed by the attacks of a savage enemy, and 
dependent upon the will of a foreign government. 
At its termination, it had become a wealthy and 
populous state, extending from the ocean to the 
Canadian frontier, favored with peace and pros- 
perity, and governed by the free suffrages of its 
own citizens. At its commencement, it was hardly 
able to defend itself against a few wretched Indian 
tribes ; though " every fourth man fit to march, in 
the province," was at times in the field ; and 
judges of the courts were often " exposed as com- 
mon sentinels, and sent out upon the scout, in 
small numbers, after the enemy."* At its close, 
its citizens, in common with their brethren in other 
states, were ready to wage war with one of the 
most powerful nations on the globe, for the pro- 
tection of their national rights and the vindication 
of their national honor. 

The death of George Washin2;ton had occurred 
on the 14th of December, 1799 ; and in this state, 
as Well as every part of the Union, the twenty- 
second day of the succeeding February, the anni- 
versary of his birth, was devoted to expressions of 
public sorrow for the decease of a man, who was 
emphatically " first in war, first in peace, and first 
in the hearts of his countrymen." 
ISOO. The commencement of a new century brought 

* IMS. "Minuitts of Governor and Councillj" for 1703. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 319 

with it the commencement of a, new era in the chap 
pohtical history of the state. Hitherto its poHtical — i^ 
conflicts had been few, and far from severe. The 
federal party had maintained its ascendency by a 
majority which had discouraged opposition, and 
administered our affairs with a moderation Httle 
calculated to excite it. Indeed, the position 
assumed by our legislature, on many occasions, 
had been in strict accordance v.ith the views and 
sympathies of the democratic party itseh". The 
people, as a mass, had been zealous in the defence 
of their rights, hostile to every new asumption of 
power by the general government, and unyiehling 
in their attachment to an economical administra- 
tion of public affairs. 

But the measures of the administration of John 
Adams had been of a character too little popular 
to enable liim, revered as he was for his revolu- 
tionary services, to secure in any part of the Union 
that united support wliich had been accorded to 
his predecessor. Jealous and sensitive in the 
extreme, his distrust of foreigners and his nervous- 
ness under the criticisms of the press, led to the 
most fatal errors of his pohtical career. These 
errors — the passage of the ahen and sedition laws, 
and the outrages perpetrated under the sanction 
of their provisions — brought the democratic party, 
with a distinct and general organization, into the 
field in every state in the Union. The discussions 
thus excited, extended to New Hampshire, and for 
the first time the whole mass of its citizens were 
divided into those permanent political parties, 
whose frequent and exciting contests for the 
supremacy, scattered through the broad range of 



320 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, more than forty years, constitute so important a 
^'-^ part of its history. 

The contest of 1800 was conducted with great 
warmth and acrimony. Charges were promul- 
gated, against both of the rival candidates for the 
presidency, which have been condemned, by the 
more candid judgment of later times, as the mere 
offspring of party violence. Charges of cow- 
ISOO. ardice, immorahty and infidehty, were everywhere 
circulated against the illustrious Jefferson. All 
the powers of eloquence, all the influence of the 
press, and all the blandishments of melody, were 
resorted to, to blacken his character and tarnish 
the unsullied brightness of his fame. Even a 
party badge was resorted to, to distinguish his 
enemies from those of their fellow-citizens who 
gave him their support. In some instances, and 
in some sections of this state, the " black cock- 
ade" was generally worn, as a mark of devotion 
to Mr. Adams, or a security against the violence 
of his friends. 

On the other hand, allegations, of the same 
unjustifiable nature, were doubtless promulgated 
against ^Ir. Adams ; a man, who, whatever might 
have been tlie errors of his administration, was 
entitled, by his patriotism through the whole 
course of our difficulties with Great Britain, to be 
ranked among the noblest benefactors of the land. 

Important questions of principle, however, were 
at issue in the contest, involving the future pros- 
perity of the country, and the success of its repub- 
lican institutions. The dominant party had con- 
fided to the national executive full power to banish, 
at pleasure and on mere suspicion, every alien who 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 321 

should land on our shores. It had empowered him chap. 
to drag American citizens before partisan courts, ^„-J^ 
and punish them with ruinous fines and ignomin- 
ious imprisonments, for exercising the sacred rights 
of speech and the press in a manner personally 
obnoxious to himself or offensive to his supporters. 
The friends of a strict construction of the consti- 
tution, uniting themselves under the name of 
republicans, protested against these extensions of 
the executive power, as an infringement upon the 
principles of the constitution, dangerous alike 
to the rights of the states and the liberties of the 
people. 

The result of the exciting discussions of the 
time soon appeared in the annual elections in New 
Hampshire. The opposition, hitherto so power- 
less, rallied under the influence of the prevailing 
excitement, and presented Timothy Walker, of 
Concord, as their candidate for governor. That 
gentleman, having been distinguished for his devo- 
tion to the cause of liberty, and his able services 
as a member of the revolutionary committee of 
safety, had been called by the people to a variety 
of important stations, and, among others, to that of 
chief justice of the court of common pleas. With 
a private character equally unimpcached with that 
of Governor Gilman himself, and a life, like his, 
endeared to the people, the contest was removed 
from the beaten ground of personal preferences by 
his nomination, and became almost purely a ques- 
tion between the principles acted upon by the 
administration of Mr. Adams, and those avowed 
by the friends of Mr. Jefferson. Willi all their 
original partialities and sectional feelings in favor 
41 



S22 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of the former individual, it was not to have been 
__J^ expected that a revolution would take place among 
the citizens, sufficiently sudden, to transfer the 
vote of the state to the latter. At the March elec- 
tion, however, Judge Walker had six thousand 
and thirty-nine out of the sixteen thousand seven 
hundred and sixty-two cast, and Governor Gil- 
man's majority was reduced to less than four 
thousand. 

The legislature of 1800, not caring to submit 
the presidential election to the people at a time 
when so much excitement prevailed against the 
candidate it favored, passed a law by which the 
choice of electors devolved upon itself The result 

1800, was the election of Oliver Peabody, John Pren- 

1801. tice, Ebenezer Thompson, Timothy Farrar, Ben- 
jamin Bellows and Arthur Livermore, who cast 
their votes for John Adams, for president, and 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carohna, 
for vice president. 

1801. At the election of governor, in 1801, the same 
candidates were in the field. The republicans 
having relaxed their exertions, however, the result 
was the re-election of Governor Gilman, by an 
increased majority. But as soon, however, as the 
administration of Jefferson had been established, 
and begun to develop its policy, it gradually and 
continually gained favor with our citizens, till, 
within the short space of four years, an entire 
political revolution had taken place. 

The New Hampshire Missionary Society, the 
earliest charitable society of a religious character 

1801, in the state, was incorporated in 1801. Its object 

1802. yyjjg ^Q extend the advantages of religious instruc- 



NEW H A 31 P SHI RE. 323 

tion to the scattered inhabitants of the new settle- chat. 
ments, and to churches whose limited means were .SJ-^ 
inadequate to its regular support. 

John Langdon, a man whose benevolence and 
patriotism, no less than his unspotted reputation, 
have endeared him to the citizens of this state, was 
the present year elected one of the representatives 
from Portsmouth, and was supported, unsuccess- 
fully however, as the republican candidate for 
speaker. 

In the spring of 1802, he was, for the first time, 
presented by the same party as a candidate for 
the office of governor. He received eight thou- 
sand seven hundred and fifty-three votes for that 
office ; but Governor Gilman was re-elected, and 
it required a three years' struggle, during which 
the same gentlemen were candidates, to revolu- 
tionize the state. 

On the 26th day of December, a destructive fire 1S02. 
occurred at Portsmouth. It commenced, early 
in the morning, in the building occupied by the 
New Hampshire Bank, and before the alarm was 
communicated to any considerable number of citi- 
zens, it had burst through its sides, and already 
extended to some of the adjoining buildings. The 
flames spread with great rapidity, and, before their 
progress could be arrested, a large part of the 
town, including more than one hundred buildings, 
was reduced to ashes. Property to the amount of 
more than two hundred thousand dollars was 
destroyed by this unfortunate conflagration. And 
it is a circumstance which does no little honor to 
the liberal feelings of the time, that more than 
forty-five thousand dollars were raised by volun- 



324 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, tary contributions, mainly by citizens of this state, 

L_ as a partial reparation of the loss. 

The manufactures of this country were at this 
period in their infancy. Rhode Island had led the 
way, by the introduction of Arkwright's machinery 
for spinning cotton, as early as 1790. In 1803, 
the first cotton factory in New Hampshire was 
erected at New Ipswich. It was in a few years fol- 
lowed by similar establishments in Peterborough, 
Pembroke, Hillsborough and Jeffrey. The early 
adventures, however, in this branch of industry, 
were not destined to be attended with very bril- 
liant success. The constant introduction of useful 
but expensive improvements in machinery, im- 
posed a tax upon those who engaged in them, to 
which their capital, in many instances, proved 
wholly inadequate. Manufacturing enterprise, 
however, having once been excited in the country, 
gradually overcame all obstacles, and brought to 
its aid, in this state as well as elsewhere, an 
amount of capital equal to every emergency. In 
Dover, Somersworth, Nashua, Amoskeag, New- 
market, Claremont and Manchester, it has more 
recently planted itself with a foothold too firm to 
admit of its being shaken by any ordinary causes 
of embarrassment. 

The increasing population of the state had long 
since reached to its extreme line on the north. 
From the southern extremity of its fertile inter- 
vales on the Connecticut, the tide of emigration 
had already reached the head waters of that beau- 
tiful and fertilizing stream. The gradual exten- 
sion of the new settlements in the northern part of 
the state, and their great distance from the shire 



NEW HA3IPSH1RE. 325 

towns of Grafton, led to the organization of Coos chap. 
county, in December, 1803. Bounded on the ,^J^ 
north by Canada, and stretching laterally from 
Maine to Vermont, it possesses an extent of ter- 
ritory superior to that of any other county in the 
state. Its soil, however, is broken and divided 
between fertile valleys, productive swells of excel- 
lent soil, abrupt iiills and gigantic mountains. 
This region has been appropriately styled the 
Switzerland of America. From the summits of 
the White Mountains, which, standing in the south- 
ern part of Coos county, present at a glance a 
view of the whole county, to the highlands of Can- 
ada on the north and the Green Mountains on 
the west, the prospect is one of the grandest in na- 
ture. Far as the eye can reach, it is met by a con- 
stant succession of hills and mountains — sometimes 
swelling gently in the distance and sprinkled with 
settlements to their summits — sometimes breaking 
into wild peaks, in summer crowned with bald 
ledges of granite and striped by the pathway of 
the avalanche, and in winter covered with an un- 
broken mantle of snow, and rising, like mounds of 
white and spotless marble, above the surrounding 
woods. 

A scattered population had begun at an early 
period to diffuse itself among these mountains, upon 
the banks of the Connecticut, and along the bor- 
ders of its tributary streams. Twelve years before 
the commencement of the revolution, a little settle- 
ment was commenced at Lancaster, and soon fol- 
lowed by others, of the same humble character, at 
Northumberland, Stratford and Dalton. In 1775, 
the population of the present county of Coos had 



326 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, increased to the moderate number of two hundred 
_i_ and twenty-seven persons, divided among six town- 
ships, of which Lancaster, with its sixty-one inhab- 
itants, was the most populous. In 1803, the whole 
population was a little more than three thousand, 
divided among ten incorporated towns. 

At the same session of the Legislature, which 
granted the people in the northern part of the state 
a separate county organization, a turnpike road 
was established for their accommodation, begin- 
ning at the west line of Bartlett, and traversing 
the well known White Mountain Notch. It ex- 
tended twenty miles in length, and was constructed 
at an expense of about $40,000. 

This road, winding as it does through one of 
the most sublime and romantic mountain passes in 
the universe, presents to the eye of the traveller 
scenes of natural majesty and beauty, unrivalled 
by any other mountain region in America. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Samuel Livermoee — Matthew Thornton — Amendment of the federal con- 
stitution — Ascendency of the republican party — Laws — District schools — 
Iron mines — Franconia mountain scenery — The notch — Mount Lafay- 
ette — The basin — The flume— The Old JIan of the mountain, or Profile 
rock — Ascent of mount Lafayette — Execution of Burnham at Haver- 
hill — Removal of the seat of government to Concord — Commerce of 
Portsmouth — The effect of tlie embargo, the war of 1812, and other causes- 
Right of search — Orders in council — French decrees — The embargo — it 
is unpopular — The federal party again in the ascendenc}' — George Sul- 
liv^an — Aggressions of Great Britain — War becomes a probable event — 
Message of Governor Langdon — Debates in the senate and house — Speech 
of Gilman — Speech of Parrott — Lotteries — Banks — Election of William 
Flummer — his war message — Preparations for war — JMadison calls an 
extra session of congress — Increase of the army and navy — The militia 
called out — Campaign of 1812 — Daniel Webster — Progress of the war — 
Campaign of IS 13 — Change in the judiciary — Great fire at Portsmouth — 
Campaign of 1811 — Battle of Chippewa — Battle of Bridgwater — Miller — 
M'Niel — Weeks — Machinations of the federal party — Battle of New Or- 
leans — Peace — Debates in the legislature — Speech of Mr. Handerson — 
Speech of Mr. Parrott — Gov. Plummer's message — Change in the judi- 
ciary — Richardson — Bell — Woodbury — Pierce — Release of the poor pris- 
oners — Project of a canal — Western emigration. 

In May, 1803, the Hon. Samuel Livermore, chap. 

XI 

long a distinguished actor in the political affairs _^J_ 
of the state, died at his residence in Holderness, ^Q^^^- 
at the advanced age of seventy-one years. He 
was born at AValtham, Massachusetts, about the 
the year 1732, and, twenty years afterwards, grad- 
uated at Princeton col!c"rc. Ilavin^r studied law, 
and risen at an early period to a respectable rank 
in his profession, he was for some time before the 
revolution, judge advocate of the court of admi- 
ralty in tin's state. In 1782, he was appointed 



328 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, judge of the superior court, which office he held 
J,.^^ for a period of eight years. For the same length 
of time, commencing in 1793, he was a member 
of the United States senate, and was associated 
in that body with many of the most distinguished 
patriots of the revolution. 

Matthew Thornton, another of the most distin- 
guished citizens of this state, also died during the 
same year. He was a native of Ireland, where he 
was born about the year 1714, and consequently 
was sixty-one years old at the commencement of 
that great and successful struggle for indepen- 
dence, in which he was a distinguished actor. Mr. 
Thornton first settled in New Hampshire, as a 
physician, at Londonderry. He accompanied Sir 
William Pepperell in his expedition against Lou- 
isburg, in 1745, and was president of the first 
provincial convention in this state, thirty years 
afterwards. He first took liis seat in the conti- 
nental congress in November, 1776, and, though 
too late to vote for the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, he had the imperishable honor of subscrib- 
ing that important document, together with Dr. 
Benjamin Rush, and several others, similarly cir- 
cumstanced with himself. He was afterwards ap- 
pointed a judge of the superior court, which office 
he retained till 1782. It was his fortune, in com- 
mon with many of his compatriots of 1776, who, 
like him, staked their lives and property in the 
cause of independence, to go down to the grave 
covered with honors and full of years, leaving 
behind him an unspotted reputation, and the mem- 
ory of a long line of services to his country, des- 
tined to be as enduring as its history. 



Jour- 
nals. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 329 

The history of 1804 opens with an animated chap. 
contest between the two rival parties for the J.^J^ 
ascendency in the state. Governor Gihnan was ^^'^*- 
again, and for the eleventh time, elected, by a ma- 
jority however of only one hundred and fifty votes, 
over John Langdon. It is a fact, which speaks ^pg^i 
volumes in favor of the personal popularity of both /gYa. 
candidates, that all the votes, of more than twenty- 
four thousand cast at this election, were divided 
between them. There was not a scattering ballot 
thrown in the state. But while the federal party 
barely succeeded in the election of governor, the 
republicans secured a decided majority in both 
branches of the legislature. Governor Langdon, YF^' 
having been returned as a representative from 
Portsmouth, was elected speaker of the house, 
and Nicholas Gilman, afterwards a senator in con- 
gress, was chosen president of the senate. 

The legislature of this year passed, by a major- 
ity of forty-seven in the house and two in the 
senate, a bill ratifying an amendment to the federal 
constitution, providing that the candidates for pres- 
ident and vice president, should be separately and 
specifically voted for. Under the original provi- 
sions of the constitution, each elector balloted for 
two persons; and that person who received the 
largest number of votes was to be president, and 
the person who received the next largest number 
was to be vice president. Under this provision, 
John Adams had been elected vice president in ^"ur- 
17S9, and Thomas Jefferson in 1707, neither hav- "'''• 
ing received a majority of tlie electoral votes. 
Under this provision, also, in 1801, Thom.as Jeffer- 
son and Aaron Burr having each received seven ty- 
42 



Con- 
gres- 



330 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, three votes and a majority of the whole number — 
_,^_ though the former had everywhere been deemed 
the candidate of his party for the presidency and 
the latter for the vice presidency alone — the fed- 
eral party, uniting with a few personal friends of 
Burr, supported him for the presidency through 
thirty-five successive ballotings, occupying no 
less than six days. On the thirty-sixth ballot, 
Thomas Jefferson was elected, by a revulsion of 
feeling in a portion of his opponents, against an 
attempt of so glaring a character to defeat the 
well-known wishes of the people. 

To prevent the recurrence of such contests in 
future, the amendment above referred to was pro- 
posed and ratified by a sufficient number of states 
to secure its adoption. In New Hampshire, Gov- 
ernor Gilman interposed his veto and prevented its 
ratification ; acting in accordance with the views 
of the federal party generally, who, having once 
availed themselves of the former state of things, in 
a strenuous effort to defeat the election of Jeffer- 
son, were naturally opposed to the change. The 
governor objected to the adoption of the amend- 
\a^ive nient, mainly on the ground that, " if the altera- 
nais! tions proposed should take place, the office of the 
vice president, who in certain events is to be 
placed at the head of the nation, may be deemed 
less respectable than heretofore." 
Con- Thouffh, at the congressional election in August 

gres- C ' o o 

fo^^- ^^ ^^^'® year, the federal ticket was elected by a 
small majority, the republicans gained a complete 
triumph, a few weeks afterwards, in the choice of 
seven electors, who gave their votes for Thomas 
Jefferson for president, and George Clinton for 



nais. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 331 

vice-president. This was the first choice of chap. 
presidential electors, by the people of this state ; ..,-..-1^ 
every former election having been made by the 
legislature. The republicans of 1804, having the 
control of the legislative power, passed, with sin- 
gular magnanimity, a general law referring the 
presidential election directly to the people. They 
risked, upon the issue of an uncertain contest, a 
political triumph, which, in strict accordance with 
former precedent, they might have secured at once, 
to give a permanent privilege to the people, which 
had already been denied them too long. The 
result, which they could not with any certainty 
have foreseen, happily illustrated the maxim, that 
" honesty is the best policy," as well in the ope- .^„ 
rations of governments as in the management of 
private affairs. 

In 1805, after an excitins; contest, the republi- J805. 

' O ' 1 Legis- 

can party, for the first time, gained an entire i?|j^^^«= 
ascendency in the state. More votes were thrown ^^^^' 
than at any former election, and John Langdon jy|j' 
was elected governor by nearly four thousand w^\- 
majority. The prevailing party at the same time "^*'"*- 
carried every branch of the government, elect- 
ing Levi Bartlett, Joseph Badger and Benjamin 
Pierce to the council, and securing decided ma- 
jorities in the house and senate. When the legis- 
lature assembled in June, Robert Alcock, one of 
the most inflexible patriots and ardent republicans 
in the state, was elected president of the senate. 
He declined accepting the oflice, however, and the 
Honorable Clement Storer was chosen in his place. 
At the same time, Samuel Bell was chosen speak- 
er of the house, and changes were made in all the 



332 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, executive departments of the government. Phillip 
,J_J_ Carrigain was elected secretary of state, in place 
of Joseph Pearson, who had enjoyed that office 
for nineteen years in succession ; and Nathaniel 
Oilman succeeded Oliver Peabody in the office 
of treasurer. Another change, yet more impor- 
tant, resulted from this political revolution in the 
state. The death of the Honorable Simeon Olcott, 
one of its senators in congress, created a vacancy, 
which was filled by the election of the Honorable 
Nicholas Gihuan. Mr. Gilman was the first rep- 
resentative chosen to either branch of congress by 
the republican party, after its first distinct organ- 
ization in the state. Indeed, the whole represen- 
tation in congress from New England, w^ith 
scarcely an exception, v/as composed of members 
of the federal party. Tlie election, therefore, of 
a republican to the highest legislative body in 
1805. the nation, was deemed a political triumph of 
Legis- no ordinary magnitude. The leo-islature, in the 

lative . . O ' 

Jour- meantime, in their reply to Governor Langdon's 
address, adopted by a large majority in both 
branches, expressed " their utmost confidence in 
the virtuous and magnanimous administration" 
of President Jefferson, and condemned, in strong 
terms, "that spirit of malignant abuse" with 
which he had been assailed. 
Stat- Amonu; the laws passed by the lejjislature of this 

utesof "^ , • 

N. H. year, which have stood the test of time, and still 
remain among the statutes of the land, are the acts 
prohibiting the issue of private notes as a circula- 
tion, and limiting all actions for the recovery of 
real estate, to twenty years. The last law pro- 
vides, "that when any action shall be brought 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 333 

against any person, for the recovery of any lands chap. 
or tenements which such person holds by a sup- J^J^ 
posed legal title under a boQici Jide purchase," 
and has peaceably occupied more than six years 
belbre the commencement of the action, a jury 
shall appraise the value of the improvements, 
which must be paid by the plaintiff before he re- 
covers possession. Laws were also passed, regu- 
lating the manufacture and sale of bread, the 
inspection of beef, the taxation of costs before 
justices, the collection of damages done by the 
floating of lumber, and the appointment of guar- 
dians over persons who, " by excessive drinking, 
gaming, idleness, or vicious habits of any kind," 
should so squander their time and estates as to 
become exposed to suffering ancl want. Another 
law of this year provided for the division of towns 
into fechool-districts, and thereby established our 
common schools upon such a basis, as to extend 
their advantages to every citizen. No law of the 
state has done more for i\\e diffusion of useful 
knowledge or the advancement of the general wel- 
fare. Under its provisions, scliool-houses have 
sprung up in every neighljorhood in our most 
thinly settled towns, affording at once, in many 
instances, houses of worship for the scattered 
dwellers around them, and comfortable places of 
instruction for their children. 

In such humble seats of learning as these, thou- 
sands of the young men of New Hampshire have 
laid the foundation for that business knowledge, 
or those extended acquirements, by which they 
have made themselves the leaders in honest enter- 
prise, the authors of useful inventions, the masters 



334 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, of difficult arts, and the ornaments of the pulpit, 
J^J^^ the bar, the judicial seats and legislative halls of the 
country. There have been sown the seeds of pru- 
dent industry. There have been planted the germs 
of honorable enterprise. There has been first ex- 
cited that noble thirst for distinction, which has 
taken the sons of our poorest citizens from the farm 
and the workshop, and sent them into the wide 
world, with no other capital than untiring energy 
and unspotted reputation, to carve out their own 
way to distinguished fortunes and exalted honors. 
The New Hampshire Iron Factory Company, 
Lcjis incorporated at Franconia by the legislature of 
Jour 1805, soon after established the extensive works at 

fials. 

Jaek- that place, to which it has been so greatly indebt- 
Geoio- ed for its prosperity. At first, these w'orks con 
Report, sisted only of a forge, where bar-iron was made. 
In 1811 a blast furnace was erected, which has 
been kept in operation ever since. It produces 
from two hundred and fifty to five hundred tons of 
excellent iron per annum, of which from one hun- 
dred to one hundred and fifty per year is manufac- 
tured into bar-iron, while the remainder is sold in 
the form of castings. So lately as 1838, iron was 
produced to the amount of twenty-one thousand 
dollars per annum, of which sum at least twelve 
thousand dollars were paid for the labor of men 
engaged in mining, burning and drawing coal, and 
conducting the various operations at the furnace. 

The ore, which is obtained from a mountain in 
Lisbon, at a distance of three miles only from the 
furnace, yields from fifty-six to sixty-three per 
cent, of pure iron, and was long considered the 
richest in the United States. The mine is appa- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 335 

rently inexhaustible. A sinojle vein, of from three chap. 

and a half to four feet in width, has been wrought .^^ 

forty rods in length and one hundred and forty- jadc- 
four feet in depth, and this vein has been found to Report. 
extend along the hill-side into the valley below. 
The labors of the miners, often fruitlessly expend- 
ed in unskilful searchings after additional veins of 
ore, have formed many curious caverns in the 
rocky sides of the hill. In one instance, a gallery 
of this character, one hundred and twenty feet in 
length, has been cut through the solid granite. 
These labors, however useless they may have 
been to the proprietors of the mines, have brought 
to light an abundance of interesting minerals, and 
the neighborhood has long been known as the 
richest mineral region in New Hampshire. 

Nor are the attractions of this region confined 
to the searcher after curious* mineral specimens 
alone. The sublimity of its mountain scenery 
has been admired by travellers from every part 
of the country. It is approached from the south 
through a mountain pass, second only to the White 
Mountain Notch in grandeur, and thronged with 
objects of curiosity and interest. As the traveller 
threads his way through the entrance of this soli- 
tary defile, his vision is limited by a long range of 
dark hills on one side, and a huge and almost per- 
pendicular cliff of bare and shelving granite 
extends a long distance on the other. Suddenly, 
after a series of devious windings, in which the 
prospect is ever and anon obscured by the forest 
trees that skirt the way, he finds himself in the 
midst of a vast amphitheatre of mountains, their 
sides clothed with dark evergreen, broken here 



336 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, and there by rough ledges and shattered piles of 
____ granite, that rise above the surrounding woods 
and threaten the valley below. On the right, and 
considerably in advance, stands mount Lafayette, 
its gloomy sides retreating in the distance, and its 
high cone-shaped and rocky summit rising above 
the region of clouds and storms, and looking down, 
like a presiding genius, upon the convocation of 
giant hills beneath. On the left sleeps a little 
lake, from Vvhose surface the white mist curls 
gracefully to the mountain-tops around it. Be- 
hind him, upon the frowning termination of the 
giant wall of granite he has gazed upon so long, 
the traveller sees the Profile Rock,* " an abrupt 
crag, hung from the mountain's brow," and pre- 
senting, in a mass of granite, the perfect lineaments 
of a human face. 

"And full and fair those features are displayed, 
Thus profiled forth against the clear blue sky, 
As though some sculptor's chisel here had made ./ 

i'o^jn This fragment of colossal imagery, 

jy jjjfj The compass of his plastic art to try ; 

bard. From 'Adam's Apple' to the shaggy hair 

That shoots in pine trees from the head on high — 

All, all is perfect — no illusion 's there 

To cheat the expecting eye with fancied forms of air." 

The Old Man is seen casting a bold look upward 
towards the east, with his head partially inclined 
towards the little lake which lies below him em- 
bosomed in the surrounding mountains, and sweeps 
with its limpid waters the base of the throne on 
which the Old Man seems to repose. To the north 
of the notch road, lies another crystal lake, its 

* From its exact resemblance to the human face, it is called "The Old 
JIan of the Mountain." 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 337 

margin tracked bv the wild deer, from the middle chap. 

of which, in a boat, the voyager may catch a 

glimpse of the summit of mount Lafayette, 
standing aloft between two contiguous mountains, 
resting against the clear blue sky, or sublime 
amidst the storm, with clouds piled upon its top 
and hanging in black and heavy masses down its 
sides. Passing below the Old Man, the eye no 
longer distinguishes a profile ; and mount Jackson, 
with its bold front of bare rock, frowns over the 
silent lake, and affords a picture of ruggedness 
and sublimity. In the ascent up mount Lafay- 
ette, the traveller enters a dense forest opposite the 
Old Man; and passing upward in a winding path, 
is afforded a glimpse of mount Jackson. As he 
advances, his ears are saluted with the noise of 
Lafayette brook, which rolls through the woods 
below with a solemn roar. After proceeding three 
miles, over clifl' and crag, he emerges suddenly 
upon mount Pleasant, which is a small plain, cut 
as it were in the mountain side, from which is 
afforded a view of the surrounding heights, the 
villages far below, and the valley of the wild Am- 
monoosuck. At his feet, southward, lies Pleasant 
pond, the hillocks around it partly covered with 
stinted firs, partly bare and partly clothed with a 
thick moss of the brightest green. Full before 
him, to the east, is the summit of Lafayette; the 
clouds slowly sweeping along it sides, or curling 
around the top, as they sail majestically upon the 
air, or rush upon the wings of the blast. From 
Pleasant pond, whose waters are sweet, and spot- 
ted by the yellow lily, the path upward leads first 
through a grove of dwarf firs, which have been 
43 



338 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, blasted by fire, and, baving bleached white, they 

„ stand with craggy arms, like a group of skeletons ; 

but when seen from the summit of the mountain, 
present the appearance of a field covered with 
bones. Upward, the traveller proceeds over a 
stairway of stone, stepping from rock to rock, as 
they lay scattered over the mountain. Even on 
the summit he has not passed beyond the hum of 
the bee, the only insect of this vast height. Veg- 
etation has long since disappeared, save the small 
white blossom springing up amongst the moss — 
the solitary flower of the mountain. Below, to 
the east, stretch interminable ranges of mountains. 
To the north, the White Hills bound his view. 
South, is the valley of the Pemigewasset ; south- 
w^estward, mount Jackson, Black pond and Fi- 
field's pond ; and northwest, the valley of the 
Ammonoosuck. The rocks, which at mount 
Pleasant were white, have now changed to dark 
gray, spotted with black and dull yellow, inter- 
mingled with specs of green moss, which adheres 
to them in scales. Descending from the moun- 
tain, not the least interesting object to the weary 
traveller is the Franconia Notch Hotel, which 
stands completely wedged in between the heights. 
There is hardly room around it for a garden and 
narrow fields, which are bordered and environed 
by mountains. The cold breezes preserve here, 
through the summer months, a refreshing coolness, 
like the atmosphere of May, or September ; and 
the fierce heat of summer is unknown. To the 
north, immediately in the rear of the hotel, rises a 
high peak, in the form of a sugar loaf, and it takes 
that name. A ride of four miles southward. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 339 

through a, shaded road running along the Pemige- chap. 
wasset, brings the traveller to the Basin; and three ^^..^ 
miles farther, to the Flume. Yet in this space of 
seven miles there is not a house or a human habi- 
tation. Northward, the nearest dwelling stands at 
the distance of three miles ; and thus, in the space 
of ten miles, the cheerful mansion where the trav- 
eller rests, stands alone, embosomed amidst the 
lofty mountains which are the object of his pil- 
grimage. 

The Basin and Flume are among the objects in 
this vicinity, which invite the attention of the trav- 
eller. The first is a broad, round, deep cavity, 
scooped out in the solid rock by the road-side, by 
the revolving waves of the mountain stream, which 
supplies the head waters of the Pemigewasset. 
The second lies at some distance to the right of 
the road, through the mountains, as it enters the 
defile from the south. It is a long, deep and 
yawning fissure in the rock, presenting a general 
appearance sufficiently indicated by its name. 
During the freshets of spring, the little rill, which 
ripples through it in summer, swells to a mountain 
torrent, which, tumbling over loose rocks and 
broken crags, grows white with foam, and dashes 
through the giant channel, flinging its spray upon 
its massive walls, and thundering in the hollow 
caverns it has worn below. 

On the 25th of December, 1805, the Honorable P?pers 

ot the 

Russell Freeman, once speaker of the house, and ^^^y 
five years a member of the state council, having 
been imprisoned in the jail at Haverhill, was mur- 
dered, with a companion in misfortune, by Josiah 
Burnham. Burnham was their fellow-prisoner, an 



34«0 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, occupant of the same cell. Debt was the com- 

XI 

.^,_;_ mon offence, both of the murderer and the men 
he slaughtered; and the complaints of his victims, 
who had suffered great inconvenience from his 
gross manners and ravenous appetite, were the sole 
incentives to his crime. Near the close of the 
following year the murderer expiated his crime 
on the gallows, at Haverhill ; and the law, under 
the rigorous provisions of which this tragedy 
occurred, was afterwards — unfortunately long af- 
terwards — expunged from the statute books of the 
state. 

The decisive result of the election of 1805, 
established the political character of the state for 
several years. In the meantime, Governor Lang- 
don, favored with legislatures whose views were 
in accordance with his own, discharged his execu- 
tive duties with firmness and moderation, respected 
even by his opponents, and escaping much of that 
violence of attack, with which so many of his suc- 
cessors have been assailed. 

At the spring election of 1806, there was scarce- 

Legis- ly the appearance of a contest ; and in August of 

Jour- the same year, five republican representatives to 
congress were elected, while, a few months after- 
wards, the Honorable Nahum Parker, a republi- 
can also, was chosen to fill the remaining seat in 
the senate. 

1S06. On the IGth of June, in the same year, the sub- 
lime spectacle of a total eclipse of the sun was 
witnessed by the citizens of New Hampshire, in 
common with millions of others. For a time the 
obscuration was complete, the stars were visible, 
and the darkness of night shadowed the earth at 



Whiton. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 341 

mid-day. The return of light was instantaneous ; 
one side of the sun suddenly presenting a lumin- 
ous thread, of incomparable brilliancy. A scene 
so sublime and unusual, which, a century before, 
would have been regarded as the sure presage of 
wars and calamities, even at this time excited an 
interest which has made it an era in the lives of 
many who witnessed it, and who, if still living, 
refer to the " great eclipse" as the date from 
which all their recollections of that period are 
reckoned. 

For a period of nearly ninety-five years, extend- 1807. 
ing from 1680 to 1775, and from the administra- 
tion of John Cutts to that of Meshech Weare, the 
seat of government had been permanently fixed at whi- 
Portsmouth. From the beginning of the revolu- 
tion to the year 1807, the legislature had adjourned 
from town to town, holding several sessions in 
Portsmouth, Exeter, Concord and Hopkinton, 
and one each in the towns of Dover, Amherst, 
Charlestown and Hanover. As a compliment to 
Governor Langdon, the December session of the 
legislature for 1805 was holden at Portsmouth, 
In 1806 and 1807 the June sessions were holden at 
Hopkinton. At tlic close of the first session for 
1807 the legislature adjourned to Concord, in 
which town, though it has never been established 
by law as the scat of government, its sessions have 
ever since been uniformly holden. 

The year 1807 may be regarded as the close 1807. 
of the brightest season of commercial prosperity ^^^^^^ 
which Portsmouth, the only considerable maritime °l^^lf' 
town in New Hampshire, has ever enjoyed. Its ^£^^' 
exports during that year amounted to $680,022 ; 



342 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, and, during the five preceding years, sometimes 
_,_ rising above and sometimes sinking below that 
^nThe^ sum, had maintained an average not far from it. 
^cX." Its imports, during the same period, had probably 
exceeded $800,000 per annum. On the 31st of 
December, 1806, its tonnage amounted to twenty- 
two thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight tons, 
while, during the same year, one hundred and 
three vessels cleared from its harbor for the West 
Indies alone, and its total exports were valued at 
.$795,263. 

In this connection, a somewhat extended view 
of the commercial operations of this ancient town, 
may not be entirely out of place. Before the com- 
mencement of the revolution, the commerce of 
Portsmouth consisted principally in the trade to 
Great Britain and the West Indies, and a small 
coasting trade to the southern states. The same 
abundance of lumber in our forests and offish on 
our coasts, which invited the first settlement of the 
state, together with live stock, still constituted the 
great staples of its trade. Ship-building was 
extensively carried on upon the banks of the Pis- 
cataqua, and the large number of vessels annually 
fitted out at Portsmouth were laden with these 
simple, but exceedingly useful staples of the coun- 
try, and despatched to the British West Indies. 
There an excliange was eflfected for sugars and 
other articles suited to the markets of the mother 
country, where both vessels and cargoes were very 
commonly sold, and the returns made in British 
manufactured goods and such productions of other 
foreign countries as we were forbidden to import 
1807. by a direct trade. The smaller vessels, after sell- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 343 

ing their cargoes in the West Indies, usually chap. 
returned with the produce of those islands to .^..-^ 
Portsmouth, 

At that period, the commerce of Portsmouth, 
compared with that of other commercial towns, 
was of much greater relative importance than at 
the present time. But, whatever its extent, it was 
annihilated by the revolution, and at its close, in 
17S3, it had not a single square-rigged vessel in 
a seaworthy condition. 

The recovery of its commerce from the general 
ruin was gradual. It was impeded at first by the 
loss of a foreign market for ships built on the Pis- 
cataqua, and the imposition of restrictions by Great 
Britain on its West India trade. In a short time, 
however, its commercial enterprise, partially exclu- 
ded from its accustomed channels, sought out new 
ones for its employment. Its fisheries were prose- 
cuted with greater vigor, its tonnage increased, and 
its foreign trade rose to a more respectable stan- 
dard. The breaking out of a general war in Eu- 
rope gave to American trade the advantages of 
neutrality. Business again quickened into life, and 
Portsmouth shared largely in the general pros- 
perity. Her exports, as entered upon the books 
of her custom-house, swelled to the respectable 
amount already stated ; and a large portion of her 
business, conducted througli other ports, added 
greatly to the real, though nothing to the nominal 
amount of her trade. The experiment of the 
employment of a regular packet -ship in the trade 
witii Liverpool, was commenced in 180G, with 
every prospect of success, but, in December, 1807, 1807. 
the embargo set the seal of death upon this, in 
common with every other commercial enterprise. 



XI 



344 - HISTORY OF 

CHAP. The repeal of the embargo, in 1809, was followed 
by a brief season of prosperity. In spite of Brit- 
ish orders and French decrees, our ships once 
more unfurled their sails in every sea, and bore the 
American flag to every quarter of the globe. 

This momentary sunshine was but the prelude 
of the storm. The war of 1812 again swept our 
commerce from the ocean. 

The return of peace brought with it the general 
pacification of Europe. We enjoyed the advan- 
tages of neutrality no longer. The direct foreign 
trade of Portsmouth has never again recovered 
its former vigor. The forests in its vicinity no 
longer yield those stores of lumber, once deemed 
inexhaustible. Its commerce with the British 
West Indies has given way, under the active 
competition of the government of which they are 
dependencies, and the restrictions which that gov- 
ernment has imposed. 

Reduced as the foreign trade of Portsmouth has 
been, its coasting trade has increased in nearly the 
same proportion. A large number of manufac- 
turing establishments liave sprung up around the 
tide waters of the Piscataqua. The consequent 
demand for flour, grain, coal and cotton, has fur- 
nished a profitable employment for a very con- 
siderable tonnage. At a port where, thirty years 
ago, two hundred bales of cotton would have been 
an ample supply for a year, there is now an aver- 
age demand for eleven thousand bales per annum. 
Its trade, from this and other favoring impulses, is 
regularly increasing, and its business streets are 
again beginning to exhibit tokens of reviving 
prosperity. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 345 

The year 1808, as we have ah'cady seen, com- chap 
meiiced a period of severe commercial restrictions ._-!_ 
and great national excitements. The conflicting ^^^®- 
powers of Europe had long regarded the advan- 
tages of our neutral position with jealousy. Sail- 
ing under the only flag which was not arrayed 
among belligerant powers, our ships gathered a 
golden harvest in every sea. Carrymg the pro- 
ducts of England and her dependencies to the 
ports of France on one hand, they returned, 
freighted with French goods, to the marts of 
Great Britain on the other. 

The British cruisers, however, had long claimed 
the right to board our ships and impress our sea- 
men. The arbitrary enforcement of this claim 
was soon followed by other aggressions. By a 
series of orders in council. Great Britain inter- 
dicted our trade with France. France, in retali- 
ation, prohibited our trade with Great Britain. 
Our commerce was subjected to the common 
plunder of both nations, and hundreds of our ves- 
sels, engaged in a lawful trade, were captured by 
their cruisers and condemned by their courts. At 
length, our harbors were blockaded by British 
fleets, and one of our national vessels, reposing on 
our own waters, was fired upon by a British ship 
of war, of superior force. From these causes 
resulted the embargo. Its object was, by detain- 
ing our ships in our own ports, to protect them 
from the piratical aggressions of Great Britain 
and France, and, at the same time, to compel 
those nations to respect our rights, by depriving 
them of the advantages of our trade. 

However patriotic were the motives which ISOS. 
44 



346 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, induced the adoption of this measure, it was 

XI . 

__-!_ unsparingly assailed. It added to the feeling of 
discontent by which the federal party had long 
been pervaded, that excitement which is so easily 
and sometimes so unjustly created by the loss of 
trade, the derangement of business, and the tem- 
porary decline of the internal prosperity of the 
country. Motives of patriotism alone sustained 
the embargo. The clamors of interest were every- 
where raised against it. 

Nor were these clamors without effect. Though 
in the spring election in New Hampshire there 
was scarcely a contest ; though a legislature was 
elected which concurred with President Jefferson 
in sentiment, and adopted an address, approving 
his measures and sustaining the embargo ; the 
federalists rallied at the subsequent elections, 
made use of all the means of agitation which for- 
tune had placed in their hands, and again recov- 
ered, by a small majority, and after a hard contest, 
their ascendency in the state. A federal delega- 
tion in congress was once more elected from New 
Hampshire, and its electoral votes were secured 
to Charles Cotes worth Pinckney, the unsuccessful 
rival of James Madison in the presidential contest. 

1809. These triumphs gave new courage to the federal 
party. In the spring of 1809 it again entered the 
field in full force. It was opposed with a vigor 
corresponding to the attack. The republicans of 
that time, ever ready to sustain any measure, how- 
ever burdensome, which they deemed necessary for 

IS09. the vindication of American rights and American 
honor, never sunk desponding and discouraged 
under the pressure of defeat. Nearly thirty-one 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 34^7 

thousand votes were cast for governor, and Jere- chap. 

• XI 

niiah Smith, the federal candidate, was chosen by , _^ 

httle more than two hundred majority. The coun- 
cil still remained in the hands of the republican 
party. The federalists carried both branches of 
the legislature. Upon its meeting, in June, the 
work of political revolution was prosecuted still 
further. Moses P. Payson was elected president 
of the senate, and George B. Upham, speaker of 
the house. Nathaniel Parker, of Exeter, was 
chosen secretary of state, in place of Philip Carri- 
gain, and Thomas W. Thompson, afterwards 
senator in congress, succeeded Mr. Gihnan in 
the office of treasurer. The federal party was 
once more in full power in New Hampshire. 

But while that party was enjoying the rewards 
of victory, there were causes already in operation 
which were destined to secure its defeat. The 
continued aggressions of England, the perlidy with 
which she had repudiated an amicable arrange- 
ment concluded with one minister, and the insults 
offered to our government by another, had roused 
a feeling of patriotism in the country, like that 
which preceded the revolution. A modification of 
the non-intercourse policy of the administration 
had removed, to a great extent, the foundation for 
the clamors which had been raised against it; and 
a feeling of indignation against the movements of 
the British government rallied thousands of its 
former opponents around our own. If it was 
assailed with unbridled license on the one hand, it 
was supported with warm enthusiasm on the other. 
If an appeal to selfish interests was sometimes, 
for a moment, successfully used against it, the time 



348 HISTORY OF 



XI. 
1809 



CHAP, was never far distant, when the people, inspired 
with patriotism and burning to avenge the insults 
offered to our national honor, rallied again to its 
support. 

ISIO. The revolution of a single year found the repub- 
lican party of New Hampshire again in power. 
In March, 1810, John Langdon was again chosen 
governor, by more than one thousand majority in 
an increased vote. The republicans, at the same 
time, carried every branch of the government. 
William Plummer, once a member of the federal 
party, but then become distinguished for his ser- 
vices in the republican cause, was elected presi- 
dent of the senate, and Charles Cutts, of Ports- 
mouth, was chosen speaker of the house, and after- 
wards elected, during the same year, a member of 
the United States' senate. 

The same party triumphed in the congressional 
election, in August. Four of the candidates of the 
republican party were elected. The remaining 
seat was filled by the election of George Sullivan — 
a federalist it is true, but still a pure-hearted and 
patriotic man, whose opposition to the administra- 
tion in power, never led him to participate in 
factious attempts to embarrass its measures. He 
opposed the declaration of war ; but when the war 
was begun, when a foreign enemy threatened our 
coast and invaded our frontiers, he uniformly gave 
his vote in support of every measure essential to 
the public defence. It was his distinguished 
honor so to conduct at that important crisis, as to 
excite the approbation of his political opponents, 
without forfeiting the respect of his political 
friends. 



NEW HABIPSIIIRE. S49 

These elections exerted an important influence chap. 

. XI. 

upon the country. Had the federal party retained -^ 

its ascendency in the state, the election of a sena- ^^^^ 
tor and members of congress opposed to the 
administration, would have embarrassed many of 
its measures, and defeated, very probably, the 
declaration of war itself. 

Upon the result, therefore, of the elections of 
1810, among the hardy and independent yeomanry 
of New Hampshire, the success of that great mea- 
sure in a good degree depended — a measure which 
vindicated our honor, and asserted our rights, by 
the thunders of our cannon upon the sea and the 
valor of our soldiers upon the land — a measure 
which has given to so many of our military and 
naval commanders a deathless name in history, and 
secured to our national flag the respect of every 
nation on the globe. 

Party excitement now glowed too fiercely to 
subside under the influence either of victory or 
defeat. No sooner had one political campaign 
been concluded in this state, than another was 
commenced. Governor Jjangdon, a man whose 
spotless character had hitherto })reserved him, 
amid the furnace of party rage, unscathed by its 
flames, became, in these exciting times, the object 
of unfounded calunmy and unsparing abuse. 
Benevolent, irreproachable in his morals, and tlms 
far universally respected for his services in the 
revolution, he was now publicly burned in efllgy 
and loaded with execrations. It was from a par- 
tisan feeling, of a kindred character, that a leading 
journal in New Hampshire, at the same period, 
declared that " if Thomas Jeflerson had a thou- 



1811 



350 HISTORY OF 

sand lives, he deserved to be hung a thousand 
different times, as high as Haman." 

The contest between the rival parties had now 
become a question of peace and war. On one side 
it was said that the administration was hostile to 
commerce, unjust to Great Britain, and criminally 
subservient to France. On the other, it was 
asserted that the opponents of war, in their zeal 
against France, s-eemed to have entirely overlooked 
Bru-"' the outrages of Great Britain. " They could see," 
n.'h. said an able republican writer of the day, "the 



" Caius 

B 
tus 



Pat- 

riot, detention of a few seamen in France, engaged in 

1811. .. . 'OS 

illicit commerce; but they could not discern the 
detention of thousands by England. They could 
see the millions of property seized by France ; but 
to the seizures and captures of England, their eyes 
were shut. They could see the disavowal, by the 
English government, of the murderous attack on 
the Chesapeake ; but they could not see the pro- 
motion of the admiral who ordered the attack. 
They could see the treachery of France, in not 
abiding by her contract to rescind her decrees ; 
but they were blind to the perfidy of England in 
the arrangement with Erskine." 

While the federal party imputed the most honor- 
able intentions to Great Britain, and declared that 
she had done us "no essential injury," the repub- 
licans pointed to the impressment of our seamen, 
the plunder of our commerce, and the insult to our 
flag, by which the career of that haughty power 
had long been distinguished. By one party she 
was pointed to with reverence, as the "bulwark of 
our holy religion ;" by the other, denounced as the 
ruthless invader of our rights. As war became a 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 351 

probable event, its opponents arrayed all its fright- chap. 
ful consequences before the people — our armies J,.J^ 
slaughtered — our people famishing — the ashes of 
our cities stained with blood, and trampled be- 
neath the feet of victorious invaders. On the 
other hand, it was urged, that, with a righteous 
cause summoning us to arms, and stout hearts to 
defend it, we dishonored the fair fame our fathers 
had won in the conflicts of one war, by shrinking 
with these craven forebodings from another. 

Upon such issues as these, the election of 1811 ISll. 
depended. A spirit of jealous resistance to British 
aggression still burned among the hardy agricul- 
turists of New Hampshire. The glorious scenes 
of Bunker's hill and Bennington still dwelt in 
their remembrance. They dreaded not the foe 
they once had conquered. The republican party 
triumphed once more, and triumphed as the party 
of resistance — resistance unto blood, if necessary 
— to the arbitrary assumptions of Great Britain. 

Governor Langdon, re-elected by a majority of 
nearly three thousand votes, was aijain favored by V*""'*" 

./ ' o J laiive 

the election of majorities of his political associates ^^^l' 
to every branch of the government. His message 
upon the meeting of the legislature, though writ- 
ten in plain style and moderate language, exhibited 
something of that warmth of feeling which was 
then universal. He complained that at that 
" eventful moment," when the " difiicultics and 
perplexities the general government had to con- 
tend with would seem to demand the assistance 
and support of every patriotic citizen," there were 
so many who seemed ready to oppose and indulge 
a spirit of resistance against it. 



Hiimp- 

shiie 

Patriot 



352 HISTORY OF 

:hap. The legislature adopted a reply, still more spir- 

^ ited in its tone, denouncing that " defiance to our 

laws and government," "that call to resistance," 
which it declared to be " the more alarming, as it 
was manifested at a time when the nation ought 
unitedly to afford sanction to its laws and energy 
to its government." 

This expression of opinion did not pass without 
o/^ie^ opposition. An exciting debate preceded its adop- 
New" tion in the house. Governor Gilman, then a 
member of that body, threw the weight of his 
influence against it. " There are men," said that 
gentleman, " who do not believe that this govern- 
ment — if by government is meant the present and 
past administrations — is the best that ever existed. 
Look at the nation. What is its character? It 
is not respected abroad. It does not stand on that 
high ground that it did in the time of Washington 
federalism. We have no navy, except a few gun- 
boats, in dry docks, covered with boards, which 
are of no use. We are despised by foreign 
nations." 

Mr. John F. Parrott, of Portsmouth, afterwards 
senator in congress, replied. " In respect to the 
various administrations, he did not mark the differ- 
ence in the same light with the gentleman from 
Exeter. Our nation and flag had never been re- 
spected by the British. Great Britain had agreed, 
by a solemn treaty, to deliver up to the American 
government the western posts, and had retained 
those posts for eleven years. She had insulted 
our flag, robbed us of our property, and impressed 
our seamen. These things she did during the 
administration of Washington; and all would agree 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 353 

that no blame attached to him. In one instance, chap. 
forty men had been impressed from one ship, dur- .^.J^ 
ing the administration of Adams. He respected 
Washington, he respected Adams, and he might 
be allowed to respect Jefferson and Madison. 
There was one point in which he presumed the 
house would agree. All would condemn the con- 
duct of France — all would detest her outrages on 
our rights. But when we come to the injustice of 
Great Britain, the sensibilities of a party were 
touched. Do we not find men, who, if they do 
not always justify, at least palliate all the wrongs 
of Great Britain? Do we not find men who say 
she has done us no injury? And is not this a dis- 
grace to our country, whose authors merit the 
frowns of its every friend? Is it not an encour- 
agement to that nation to persevere in its injus- 
tice?" 

George B. Upham, David L. Morrill, and Eze- 
kiel Webster, participated in the discussion, and 
the address was carried in the house by a majority 
of twenty-six, and passed by a decided vote in the 
senate. 

It appears by a report spread upon the legisla- 
tive journals of this year, that the drawing of a 
lottery, formerly granted for the construction of a 
road in Dixville, in the extreme northern part of 
the state, had at length been completed. Tickets 
had been issued to the amount of more than two 
hundred and forty thousand dollars, exceeding the 
amount of prizes paid by the large sum of thirty- 
two thousand one hundred and four dollars. 
Nearly six thousand dollars of this sum were lost 
by the failure of venders in Boston; and adding to 
45 



354 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, this the expenses and the loss on tickets retained 
_ii_ by the lottery, less than fifteen hundred dollars 
remained, as a net profit, to be applied to the 
road. From this time, the system of defraying 
public burthens by lotteries Mas abandoned by 
the state, as alike injurious to the people and per- 
plexing to the government. The road was nearly 
completed, however, by the aid of such funds as 
had been realized from this unprofitable enterprise. 
The failure of three of our banks had at this 
time created a general excitement ; and a consid- 
erable portion of our legislative sessions was 
occupied in an investigation of their affairs. The 
Hillsborough, Cheshire, and Coos Banks, having 
issued a much larger amount of bills than their 
charters warranted, had become embarrassed, and 
stopped payment very nearly at the same time. 
The former bank had refused to submit its books 
for examination. The two latter, having, as was 
generally supposed, redeemed a large share of 
their circulation, through the intervention of bro- 
kers and at a heavy discount, had still an outstand- 
ing circulation of about one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars. The great public loss upon the 
depreciated paper of these banks, severely as it 
was felt at the time, has induced a more cautious 
legislation in relation to this class of institutions. 
1811. During this year a law passed changing the 
compensation of judges of the court of common 
pleas from an uncertain amount, depending upon 
fees, to a stated salary; a change which was after- 
wards so extended as to embrace nearly every 
important office in the state. By this means it 
was wisely judged that the temptation to unrea- 



NEW H A I\I P S H I R E . 355 

sonable exactions would be entirely removed ; and chap. 

* . . XI. 

that, while the compensation of public officers .^J^ 

would be fixed upon a just and permanent basis, 
the cost of the government would be greatly di- 
minished to the people. 

With the commencement of 1812, terminated a 1812. 
period of peace, which had existed, with little 
intermission, for nearly twenty-nine 3^ears. That 
period, though marked with frequent fluctuations 
in our commerce and depressions in our currency, 
though it found a heavy burthen of debt resting 
upon the people at its commencement, had wit- 
nessed a gradual but constant increase, in this 
state, in wealth, business, and institutions of learn- 
ing ; in its means of communication, and the num- 
ber of its inhabitants. Flourishing manufacturing 
establishments had arisen upon the banks of our 
principal streams. Academies had been establish- 
ed in places which, at the close of the revolution, 
had scarcely the means to maintain a respectable 
common school. More than five hundred miles of 
turnpike roads had been constructed, at an expense 
of six hundred thousand dollars. Upon these 
great thoroughfares, uniting upon the centre of 
the state, and thence spreading in /3very direction, 
and extending to its extremities, the people found 
a direct communication with every market. A 
code of laws, simple in their form, and generally 
adapted to the wants of the people, had grown up 
with the exigencies of the times. Justice was 
promptly administered in the courts. The civil 
and political rights of man were carefully guarded. 
Wrong sometimes won its way to the attainment 
of its ends, it is true; but yet crime seldom stalked 



356 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, among us unpunished, and honest worth h^d Httle 
..^,^ to fear from oppression in the laws or corruption in 
the courts. Such was the general condition of New 
Hampshire, when, in common with the country at 
large, it was suhjected to the hurthens and uncer- 
tain chances of war. 

The same political discussions were agitated 
before the election of March, 1812, which had 
decided that of the previous year. John Langdon 
having declined a re-election to the office of gov- 
ernor, the republican party presented a new candi- 
date, in the person of William Plummer. He was 
a member of the bar; and, intimately connected as 
he then was with the republican party, had, at a 
period not very remote, been a supporter of the 
administration of John Adams, and a champion of 
federal principles. A knowledge of his former 
sentiments alienated some members of the repub- 
lican party from his support ; and the unpopular 
points of his profession were eagerly seized upon 
by his political enemies to excite a popular preju- 
dice against him. A close contest was the result. 
The federalists once more brought John Taylor 
Gilman, the most popuhar man of their party, into 
the field as a candidate, and he received a small 
plurality of the votes, though not a majority of the 
whole number. The republicans, however, car- 
ried every other branch of the government, and 
elected William Plummer in the legislative conven- 
jour. tion. Strong as the opposition to his election had 
^une^' been, his opinions seem to have had great weight 
p.^90.' ^ith the legislature. In no less than three in- 
iVo°v. stances, during the current year, he deemed it 
^145.'^' necessary to veto measures which had passed tri- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 357 

« 

umphantly through both houses. In each instance, chap. 

upon a consideration of the reasons which induced J^ 

this course, it was sanctioned by a unanimous 
vote. 

In his message to the Icgishiture, the governor 
communicated his views upon the subject of cor- 
porations : — 

"Acts of incorporation of various kinds," said he, 
" have within a few years greatly increased in this 
state ; and many of them, being in the nature of 
grants, cannot with propriety be revoked without the 
previous consent of the grantees. Such laws ought, 
therefore, to be passed with great caution ; many 
of them should be limited to a certain period, and 
contain a reservation authorizing: the legislature to 
repeal them, whenever they cease to answer the 
end for which they were made, or prove injurious 
to the public interest." 

The message of the governor recapitulated, with 
much spirit, the wrongs our country had sustained 
from the aggressions of Great Britain, and urged 
upon the consideration of the state the importance 
of a firm and united support of the policy of the 
general government. In a reply, adopted by a 
very decided majority, t!ie legislature used the 
tbllowing spirited language : — " Is our indepen- jour- 
dence now assailed?" they asked. "Are our 
maritime rights denied, our national privileges in- 
fringed, our commerce obstructed, and our citizens 
impressed? And are we called upon to decide the 
painful alternative, submission or manly defence ? 
Permit us, sir, to aver for ourselves and the good 
citizens of New Hampshire, that we are all Amer- 
icans ; that we v/ill cordially unite in maintaining 



iials. 



358 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, our rights, in supporting the constitutional meas- 
_L_ ures of our government, and in repelhng the ag- 
gressions of every invading foe." 

The State Prison at Concord, a large granite 

building, was this year constructed, at an expense 

whi- of thirty-seven thousand dollars. It was placed 

ion. "^ ^ _ ^ ^ 

under the immediate supervision of the governor 
and council, and ranked, at an early period, among 
the best regulated prisons in the country. An 
entire revision of the criminal code of the state 
followed its erection. Those laws which imposed 
whipping and the pillory upon persons guilty of 
minor offences — laws always revolting to every 
sentiment of humanity — were abolished ; and of 
eight capital offences, six were made punishable 
by imprisonment only. Henceforth, murder and 
treason alone were deemed crimes of sufficient 
turpitude to be visited with the severest retribu- 
tion which human laws can inflict. 

Meanwhile, events tending to hasten the decla- 

u. sf ration of war were in constant progress. The 
American frigate President, while cruising off the 
coast of Virginia, had been wantonly fired upon 
by the Little Belt, a British sloop of eighteen 
guns. This outrage, which gives no unfair idea 
of the general insolence of the British cruisers at 

^^^^- that time, met with that prompt and severe retri- 
bution it merited. Every effort of our government 
to obtain a satisfactory arrangement upon the sub- 
ject of impressments had been unavailing. The 
British orders in council were still wantonly en- 
forced; and upon the restoration of our commerce 
with France, large numbers of our vessels, bound 
with rich cargoes, were seized by Great Britain. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 359 

During a period of nine years only, nine hun- chap. 

dred American vessels had been captured by her - J^ 

cruisers and condemned in her courts. 

At an extra session of congress, summoned by 
President Madison in November, 1811, laws were 
passed, authorizing an augmentation of the navy 
and an increase of the regular army to thirty-five 
thousand men, and otherwise providing for the pub- 
lic defence. 

Congress was employed in preparations for war, 
until late in the month of May, 1812. Informa- 
tion having been obtained from London, which 
convinced the American government that they 
could no longer entertain any reasonable hopes 
of redress, on the 18th day of June, an act passed 
declaring war against Great Britain. 

When the legislature of New Hampshire as- 
sembled, in November, active hostilities had already 
been commenced. In the meantime, hundreds of 
her sons had already ralhcd round the standard of 
their country, and five companies of her militia, 
had been detached for service within her own lim- 
its. Of these, four were stationed at Portsmouth 
under the command of Major Bassctt, to aid in ^"^^y 

J ' nor's 

the defence of that harbor; while the fifth, under ^^^^' 

^ ' sage, 

the command of Cai)tain Maluirin, was posted at f^^^- 
Stewartstown, to protect the frontier from preda- 
tory excursions from Canada, and check a con- 
traband trade, there too common, which at once 
defrauded the revenue of the country and furnished 
its enemies with supplies. 

The operations of the American army, during 
the campaign of 1S12, were attended with little 
success. The disgraceful surrender of Hull, and 



360 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the failure of our operations upon the Cana- 
_^.J_ dian frontier, were sources of mortification to 
the friends of the war and new objects of attack 
to its enemies. Tlie exploits of the iVmerican 
navy, however, even at the commencement of the 
war, softened the disappointment occasioned by 
our reverses upon land, and taught the vaunted 
mistress of the ocean, tliat she was no longer 
invincible on that element, where her naval heroes 
had gained her so many laurels. 
Papers Udou the cvc of tlic autumu elections of this 

of the ^ 

^^y- year, the Hon. John Goddard, one of the candi- 
dates of the republican party, suddenly renounced 
its principles, declared himself to be strongly op- 
posed to the war, and suffered his name to be 
instantly placed upon the federal electoral ticket. 
Such an event could not fail to paralyze, to some 
extent, the movements of that party which he had 
so suddenly abandoned, and, at the same time, to 
give new courage to its enemies. After a warm 
contest, the federal tickets for electors of president 
and members of congress v, ere elected, by an aver- 
age majority of not far from fifteen hundred votes. 
Daniel Vv^ebster was one of the congressional dele- 
gation at this time chosen ; a man who, though then 
young, soon ranked among the ablest opponents 
of the administration and tlic war, and gained that 
high reputation as a cool, powerful and eloquent 
debater, which he has maintained, during a service 
of twenty-five years, in one branch or other of the 
American congress. Thirty years before this time, 
he was born by the side of tlie Merrimac — the 
son of a farmer. At school and in college he 
sometimes composed poetry, and displayed in his 



NEAV HAMPSHIRE. 361 

prosG compositions a gorgeous fancy ; but his chap 

first efforts at the bar were marked by a close, ^ 

vigorous and mature style, which indicated a pre- 
ponderance of the reasoning powers over the 
imagination, and determined his character as a 
powerful logician, kindling but occasionally with 
the fires of imagination. He rose with a rapid 
flight — dazzling and astonishing — convincing and 
conquering. The bar acknowledged him as its 
head — the rival leaders of his own party made way 
for him in the race for distinction, and he was 
ushered forward at once to the first stations of 
responsibility and honor v»hich they had in their 
power to bestow. Most of his mature years have 
been passed in the halls of legislation. He has 
discussed, either for the purpose of opposition or 
support, most of the important measures of gov- 
ernment ; and though his views have often failed 
to gain the popular support, and the correctness of 
them has been questioned by the ablest minds in 
the nation, yet he has left impressed on the mem- 
ory of man, and stamped upon the records of public 
affairs, so many of those touches of genius, which, 
in an age of intelligence, will be preserved from 
oblivion, that the name of Webster, though he be 
consigned to the grave, cannot fall into forgetful- 
ness. Amidst all the vicissitudes of human afiairs, 
the traces which genius leaves behind it will sur- 
vive, and will rise above the conflict of interests 
and the shock of opinions, to be admired, when 
time shall have corrected the errors of human 
belief, and the transitory prejudices of tlic day 
shall be forgotten. 

The federal party, after a strenuous contest, 
46 



362 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, maintained in the spring of 1813 the ascendency 
,,,^-;^ which they had gained at the election of the pre- 
ceding autumn. John Taylor Gilman, after a 
retirement of eight years, was again elected gover- 
nor of New Hampshire by a majority something 
less than five hundred votes. The federal party 
gained the control of both branches of the legisla- 
ture, and upon its meeting in June, elected Thomas 
W. Thompson speaker of the house and Oliver 
Peabody president of the senate. The ascendency 
thus gained, they succeeded in preserving through 
the sharp and doubtful contests of the two suc- 
ceeding years. 

Still, these facts show no instability of opinion 
in the freemen of New Hampshire. True, it fa- 
vored the declaration of war, and, after it com- 
menced, elected a delegation to congress and a 
state government opposed to that war. But were 
its elections, during this period, a fair indication 
of the views of a majority of its freemen ? It 
should be remembered, that at the very commence- 
ment of the conflict, hundreds of the people aban- 
doned their peaceful pursuits, and gave up their 
right of influencing the result of our elections by 
their votes, to sustain the cause of their country, 
in many a hard-fought battle both by land and sea. 
The people of New Hampshire contributed no 
less to the success of the war than they did to its 
commencement. Its hardy citizens were to be 
found in every hard-fought field. Its seaboard 
contributed its weather-beaten seamen to man our 
navy, and sent whole companies to mingle in the 
conflict which raged on our frontiers. Recruits 
swarmed to the seat of war from every part of the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 363 

State. Every village furnished its squad. Every chap. 

scattered settlement among the mountains contrib- , .^ 

uted its man. In some instances whole families 
came forward at the call of their country ; and 
father and son left their little homestead in the 
wilderness and marched to the post of danger to- 
gether. Had these brave men remained quietly 
by their own firesides, and left to others the noble 
task of defending their country, far different would 
have been the result of the elections at home ; and 
far different, too, there is reason to believe, the ^ 
result of some of those fierce conflicts on tlie fron- 
tier, in which the American flag floated in triumph 
over bloody fields and vanquished enemies. 

In 1814, Oilman's actual majority was less 
than six hundred votes, and, in 1815, it sunk 
to five hundred and fourteen.* Had the brave 
New Hampshire men, who battled under Perry 
in the glorious conflict on lake Erie, and with 
the equally brave Macdonough on lake Cham- 
plain — who marched, fearless, up to the can- 
non's mouth under the command of Miller and 
McNeil — the crews of our gallant privateer ships, 
and our hardy seamen serving in nearly every 
vessel in the American navy, mustering as they 
did more than two thousand brave men and stout 
hearts — been present at these elections, the re- 
publican party would have controlled the desti- 
nies of the state from the beginning to the end of 
the war. — 

At the June session of the legislature of 1813, a 
nominal change was made in the judiciary system 
of the state, which resulted in an annihilation of 

* This statement includes a few votes rejected for in:'oriria!ity in the returns. 



364 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the offices of the existing judges, and gave to the 
.^.^J^ dominant party an opportunity to appoint their 
successors upon the bench. The name of the 
highest court in the state, which had been styled 
the " superior court of judicature," was by the 
new law changed to the "supreme judicial court." 
Arthur Livermore, chief justice of the former 
court, was retained as an associate justice in the 
new one. Jeremiah Smith, of Exeter, who had 
resigned his seat on the bench to accept the office 
of governor, was again appointed chief justice. 
The remaining seat was filled by Caleb Ellis of 
Claremont, a young but distinguished member of 
the bar. 

The republican party strenuously denied the 
constitutionality of this measure, contending that 
judges commissioned to hold office "during good 
behavior," could be removed only by impeach- 
ment, or upon an address to the governor by both 
branches of the legislature. The federalists, on 
the other hand, insisted, that the legislature had an 
undoubted riglit to abolish any office which it had 
created. The controversy upon this subject pro- 
duced a very general excitement. Upon the first 
meeting of the court in Rockingham county, the 
sheriff* took his seat as usual, but refused to obey 
the orders of the new court ; while Richard Evans 
and Clifton Clagget, the two judges whom the 
Go^- new system had displaced, appeared, and " di- 
man's rectcd tlic pcrsou whom they called their clerk, 
October ^^ administer the oath to the grand jurors — they, 
session, ^hc jurors, uo othcrwisc regarding than with aston- 
ishment." In Hillsborough county, the sheriff 
sent some of his deputies to attend upon the new 



N E W II A M r S H IRE. 365 

court, and escorted, in person, the two former chap. 

. XI 

judges to the court-house; so that, deprived of ^-!..», 
the use of that building, tlie new court " per- jour? 
formed the business of the session in a school- p"45. 
house." Upon this court, however, the members 
of the bar, as well as parties, jurors and witnesses 
generally attended. 

In consequence of the confusion resulting from 1813. 
this unsettled state of things, Governor Gilman 
convened the legislature on the twenty-seventh 
day of October, several weeks earlier than the day 
to which it had adjourned. At an early period of 
this session, Josiah Butler, sheriff of the county of 
Rockingham, and Benjamin Pierce, sheriff of 
Hillsborough, were removed by address ; the meas- 
ure having been adopted by a strictly party vote. 

The legislature of this year incorporated the 
Kimball Union Academy, at Plainfield. It had 
been endowed with a permanent fund of forty 
thousand dollars, by the munificent bequest of the 
Honorable Daniel Kimball, and has ever since its 
establishment remained in a flourishing condition, 
fully accomplishing the benevolent designs of its 
founder. 

An extensive fire, near the close of the year A.iams' 
1813, added to the eml)arrassjnents under which ot 

Ports- 

Portsmouth already labored from the destruction mouth, 
of its fisheries and foreign trade. It broke out on 
the evening of the twenty-second of December, 
and spreading rapidly in every direction, raged 
with great violence till three o'clock in the niorn- 
ing. One hundred and eighty dwelling-houses, 
and sixty-four other buildings, occupying a space 
of fifteen acres, were entirely destroyed. Prop- 



366 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, erty to the amount of nearly three hundred thou- 
.^__L_ sand dollars was lost by pillage and the flames. 
The public, on this occasion, as it had done on a 
former one, came forward with generous contribu- 
tions in aid of the sufferers, amounting to more 
than seventy-seven thousand dollars. 

In the meantime, the war had been conducted 
with various fortune. During the campaign of 
1813, Gen. Winchester had been taken, with five 
hundred American troops, at Frenchtown, and 
Gen. Wilkinson defeated in an unsuccessful at- 
tempt to penetrate to Montreal. On the other 
hand, York, in Upper Canada, had been captured 
by General Brown; the British repulsed with 
great loss in their attempts on Sackett's Harbor 
and Craney Island ; Proctor routed, and Tecum- 
seh killed on the Thames, and the American stan- 
dard once more planted upon the ramparts of 
Detroit. During this year, also, on the 10th of 
September, the illustrious Perry achieved his vic- 
tory over the British squadron on lake Erie, and 
gained an undisputed possession of its waters. 
ISU. l-^he events of 1814< shed still greater lustre 
upon the American arms. On the 5th of July, the 
American troops, under the command of Gen. 
Brown, attacked a strong British force, com- 
manded by General Riall and stationed at Chip- 
pewa. The two armies met in the open field, and 
after a long and bloody conflict, in which at some 
periods the troops fought man to man, contesting 
every foot of ground with the bayonet, the Ameri- 
cans were victorious, and the enemy were driven 
behind their intrenchments, with a loss of five 
hundred men. In the battle of Chippewa the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 367 

British and Indians foujjht with the courage of chap, 
desperation. They were formed in order of battle _!.-_ 
on the banks of the Niagara, their left resting on 
the river, their right on a wood. The American 
position was the reverse of this. Their right 
rested on the river, their left on the wood. Early 
in the morning the light horse of the enemy were 
seen hovering round, and scouting parties appeared 
in the distance. The battle commenced by the 
firing of small arms. This increased, and the 
artillery began to play with effect, until at length 
the forces on both sides were closely engaged. A 
dense cloud of smoke now hung between the two 
armies. Suddenly the British fire slackened, and 
the Americans immediately ceased their fire. As 
the veil of smoke slowly rose from before them, a 
trampling was heard, and as the Americans bent 
forward to look under the smoke, the feet of the 
British soldiers could be distinctly seen advancing. 
It was apparent that they were charging. But 
as their left was closing to charge the American 
right, the terrible fire which the Americans were 
enabled to pour upon their flank threw them into 
disorder and drove them from the field. They 
retreated, and were closely pursued to Chippewa 
creek, which they crossed, taking up the bridge 
after them. 

In this battle. General John McNeil, then a ma- 
jor, was second officer of the eleventh regiment ; 
but before it had taken its place in tl.e line he had 
succeeded to the command by the fall of Colonel 
Campbell. He was attached to the forlorn hope,* 

* Scott's brigade, composed of Leavensworth's, Jessup's, and Campbell's 
regiments, the 9th, lllh, and 25th. 



368 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, a single brigade, which was obliged to pass the 

bridge over Street's creek under the fire of a 

je" British battery. General McNeil was observed 
ie"ier, to wicld his force at this point with the greatest 
wa- coolness and self-possession. Under the galling 
son's fire which poured death amidst his ranks, his line 
mofrs. was fomicd with the accuracy of parade ; and the 
loud word of command which he gave, rising 
above tiie din of battle, and going forth so dis- 
tinctly as to be heard by those far beyond his com- 
mand, inspired resolution in all, and seemed to 
declare, in its deep tones, that the field of deadly 
combat arouses the energies of mind and body to 
a level with the dangers and appalling difficul- 
ties of the occasion. For his distinguished and 
gallant conduct in this battle he was breveted a 
lieutenant-colonel.* 

From the field of Chippewa the American army 
passed down the Niagara, and took a position 
opposite the cataract. 

Soon after this event, General Riall abandoned 
his defences and retired to the heights of Burlington. 
Here General Drummond joined him with a large 
reinforcement, and assuming the command, the 
combined troops again advanced towards the 
American camp. On the twenty-fifth, was fought 
the battle of Niagara,! wliich, commencing a little 
before sunset, continued till midnight. This bat- 
tle was fought hard by the cataract of Niagara, 
whose thunders were heard at intervals amid the 
roar of cannon and the clash of arms ; the moon 

* Report of a committee of the senate, made Jan. 20, 18-11. See Con- 
gressional Journals for ISll. 

■j- Sometimes called the battle of Bridgwater or Lundy's Lane. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 369 

ever and anon shining briglitly upon the combat- chap. 
ants, and then, obscured by clouds and smoke, _L-1^ 
leaving them to pursue the work of death in dark- 
ness. 

It was in the dusk of the evening, while the gal- 
lant brigade of Scott was sustaining nearly the 
whole force of the enemy's attack, and waiting 
w^hile General Ripley marched three miles to their 
assistance, that they were cut to pieces, and nearly 
all the officers killed or wounded. At this critical 
juncture McNeil rode forward to reconnoitre the 
enemy's position. lie had but just returned, and 
was cheering his men on to the fight, when he 
received a shot* in his knee from a carronade. 
He, however, clung to his horse and his com- 
mand, urging his men on to the conflict. He 
remained on the field until he became weak from 
the loss of blood, which some of the men ob- 
serving, offered to assist him to withdraw ; which 
he rejected, and remained clinging to the mane of 
his horse, until ho several times fainted, and finally 
was reluctantly compelled to be led from the field. 

The British artillcr}^ posted on a commanding 
height, had annoyed our troops during the earlier 
part of the battle. " Can you storm that battery?" 
said General Ripley to Miller. "I'll try, sir," 
rephed the warrior ; then turned to his men, and, 
in a deep tone, issued a few brief words of com- 
mand. ^^ Tivcnty- first, attention! Form into 
column. You will advance up the hill to the 
storm of the battery. At the word, ^ Halt,' you 
will deliver your fire at the port-light of the artil- 

* Report of a committee of the senate, Jan. 20, 1911. Congressional 
Journals, 1841. Wilkinson's Memoirs. Jessup's letter, Ms. 

47 



370 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, lerymen, and immediately carry their guns at the 
__J_ point of the bayonet. Support arms — forward — 
march!" Machinery could not have moved with 
more compactness than that gallant regiment. 
Followed by the twenty-third, the dark mass 
moved up the hill like one body — the lurid light 
De- flickerincf on their bayonets, as the combined fire 

scrip- 

tionin of the enemy's artillery and infantry opened mur- 
Ameri- dcrously upou them. They flinched not — falter- 

i84i'. ed not. The stern, deep voice of the oflicers, 
as the deadly cannon-shot cut yawning chasms 
through them, alone was heard — " Close up — 
steady, men — steady." Within a hundred yards 
of* the summit, the loud ^'Ilalt" was followed by 
a volley, sharp and instantaneous as a clap of 
thunder. Another moment, rushing under the 
white smoke, a short, furious struggle with the 
bayonet, and the battle was won. The enemy's 
line was driven down the hill, and their own can- 
non mowed them down by platoons. This bril- 
liant success decided the fate of the conflict, and 
the American flag waved in triumph on that hill, 
scorched and blackened as it was by the flame of 
artillery, purpled with human gore and encum- 
bered by the bodies of the slain. 

The contest now shifted to fort Erie, where, 
in an unsuccessful assault and a brave sortie of 
the American troops, the British commander lost 
nearly two thousand men. In these fierce conflicts 
the New Hampshire troops were present in large 
numbers and gained imperishable honor. While 
McNeil and Miller gained, as they deserved, un- 
fading laurels in these battles, scarcely less honor 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 371 

was due to Weeks,* who, like them, was a son of chap. 

XI. 

New Hampshire. The services of these three — !_ 
men present a bright page in the history of the 
war, and give them sohd claims to the lasting 
gratitude of their country. 

During this season the British gained posses- 
sion of Washington city, burning the capital and 
destroying public property to an immense amount. 
The mortification occasioned by this calamitous 
event, however, was more than removed by the 
gallant reception which our brave troops gave the 
enemy at Baltimore and Plattsburg, by the victory 
of Macdonough on lake Champlain, and the chiv- 
alrous exploits of Porter on the ocean. 

Late in the summer, a powerful British naval 
force entered Penobscot Bay, and gained posses- 
sion, with scarcely a show of opposition, of several 
towns upon its borders. The dangerous proximity 
of this force created no little apprehension for the 
fate of our own seaboard. The governor of this 
state, therefore, partly on his own authority, and 
partly in obedience to directions received from the 
general government, detached large bodies of mili- 
tia from the several divisions in this state to Ports- 
mouth, to assist in the pidilic defence. So great 
was the number of volunteers, that compulsory 
service was rendered almost entirely unneces- 
sary. " Whole companies, from various parts of 
the state," volunteered their services and marched 
to the seat of danger together. The enemy, how- ^^f^ 
ever, finding our harbor too well defended, pru- 
dently declined venturing upon an attack. 

The embarrassments and privations naturally 

* Major John W. Week?, of Lancaster. 



Gover- 
nor's 
Mes- 



1815 



372 , HISTORY OF 

CHAP, attendant upon the war, had stimulated its oppo- 

.^.J^ ilents to an opposition, of a character so violent 
as hardly to admit of palliation, and much less 
of defence. They urged that the administration 
had employed all its resources upon idle schemes 
of conquest, and left the New England seaboard 
almost entirely destitute of the means of defence, 
thereby forfeiting all claim to the confidence of its 
citizens. Many even went to the bold length of 
maintaining that the militia of the eastern states 
and the revenue accruing in their ports, should be 
retained, in defiance of the general government, to 
provide for their separate defence. A separate 
peace with the enemy and a separate union of the 

1814. northern states, were general and public subjects 
of discussion ; and this, too, in the midst of the 
war, when the ashes of our frontier towns, the 
ruins of our capitol, and the butchery of our 
soldiers under Winchester, after tJieir surrender, 
demanded an exertion of the united resources of 
the whole country to visit a proper retribution 
upon the enemy. At this time, in the midst of 
such exciting discussions as I have mentioned, 
a convention of delegates, chosen by (he federal 
legislatures of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 
Connecticut, assembled in secret conclave at 

^''^5- Hartford. Mills Olcott and Benjamin West ap- 
peared in that body from New Hampshire, not 
like their associates, as the accredited agents of a 
state, but in the less imposing capacity of dele- 
gates, chosen by informal meetings of their party 
in the counties of Grafton and Cheshire. Gover- 
nor Gilman was desirous of summoning a special 
session of the legislature, for the purpose of secur- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 373 

ing a more formal representation ; but a majority chap. 

of the council, belonging to the republican party, '^ 

disapproved of and defeated the design. The 
origin of this convention — the fierce declamations 
of those who favored it, against the government — 
the seditious tone of many of the federal presses 
at the time of its meeting, and the secrecy which 
attended its deliberations, have thrown a sus- 
picion upon its character, which time seems un- 
likely to remove. 

For years after the convention, annually, on its 
return, the public journals continued to notice its 
anniversary, and to describe it as a day of dark 
design and conspiracy against republican institu- 
tions, and to proclaim that, on Thursday, Dec. 15, 
1814, a convention was holden at Hartford to 
organize resistance to the government — to dis- 
solve the Union — to array different sections of the 
Union in hostile arms against each other — and to 
place the New England states finally under the 
protection of the kingdom with which we were 
then at war. The names of all the membei's were 
printed in staring capitals, and held up to public ex- 
ecration — so that whoever should dare to meditate 
disunion and the destruction of the constitution — 
whoever should act publicly and openly w^ith a 
foreign enemy against his own native land — who- 
ever should meditate treason against the govern- 
ment, against the people, and against liberty, 
might be constantly reminded of the Hartford 
convention, and the fate of the politicians by 
whom the convention was advocated and coun- 
tenanced. The voice of a large majority of the 
people soon condemned its motives, and a general 



374 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, unpopularity and odium have, in most parts of the 
J^ country, rested upon the names and memory of the 
members. 

On the other hand, in some parts of the country, 
particularly in Massachusetts, the state which 
Ss originated and recommended the convention, it 
Mass. lias been defended warmly, and its advocates and 
^■^°^' even its members continued in public favor, and 
raised to hi ah offices. They have contended that 
the design of the convention was not fully under- 
stood, or not candidly and fairly represented — 
^'^^- that it was composed of men who deemed the war 
^^^^- not a war for defence, but for the conquest of 
Canada — that the people of Massachusetts and 
other states on the coast had suffered extremely 
from the war, and that the Hartford convention 
assembled to devise means of protection and re- 
lief — that it never plotted treason, nor conspired 
against liberty, nor contrived a dissolution of the 
Union. Such are the apologies for the Hartford 
convention. They have been repeated and urged 
by the ablest advocates. But the people seldom 
fail to render a righteous verdict, when the means 
of judging are fully before tliem. The Hartford 
fonf convention has been condemned by a large portion 
p. 408. Qf j^ijg people throughout the United States. It 
was composed, without exception, of members 
of that party who took their name originally as 
defenders of the constitution, but were violent 
opponents of the war. 

They maintained that it was in vain to contend 
against so powerful a nation as Great Britain — 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 375 

that she never would yield what we foufifht for — chap. 

. XI 

that the Americans were weak — destitute of re- __J_ 
sources — that they could not raise an army — and, 
if one were raised, that it could not suhsist. They 
appeared at the recruiting stations and about the 
military encampments of volunteers, and endea- 
vored to dissuade the men from enlisting. When 
other means failed, they purchased demands against 
soldiers, and brought suits and thrust them into 
jail. This was done at Concord and Haverhill, 
and many other places. They denounced the war 
as "unjust," "unnatural," "abominable," and 
" wicked." They were, in some cases, detected 
in a treacherous intercourse with the enemy ; as 
also were some professed advocates for the war. 
They addressed the people in public meetings, and 
told them that Britain was clement and merciful — 
" the protector of the Protestant religion" — " the 
bulwark of the faith we profess." In some in- 
stances they openly rejoiced in the defeat of Amer- 
ican arms, and justified or palliated the brutalities 
of the British soldiery. To deter the people from 
the contest, they arrayed before them the vast 
expenses of the war, and brought it home to each 
locality and every citizen, by an exact compu- 
tation of the cost to each town and to every 
individual. 

Their policy seemed to be to oppose everything 
calculated to give energy to the war, or to lead 
to the negotiation of an honorable peace. By 
an organized opposition they dissuaded capital- 
ists from loaning money to the government, and 
sowed distrust everywhere. 

If the war with England was " unnatural," 



376 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, the conduct of the federalists was still more so. 

^^..J^ American patriots were filled with sorrow, and 
foreign nations were struck with astonishment, to 
see "the Yankee states," covered with the glo- 
ries of revolutionary valor, yet now seemingly 
ready to kneel to a nc\,tion whom they had once 
vanquished, and sacrifice on the altar of avarice 
the honors of Bunker hill and Lexington, and all 
the fame of that revolution which had rendered 
them illustrious throughout the world. 

The momentary shock which the war gave to 
the people at its commencement — the burdens of 
taxation and the terrors it occasioned, had given 
the federal party in many states a sudden ascen- 
dency. But deep reflection awoke the people to 
see the necessity and duty of sustaining the gov- 
ernment, and so rapid was the republican gain 
everywhere that it promised to consign the oppo- 
nents of the war, in every state, to inevitable defeat. 
The tillers and owners of the soil rallied fast to 
its defence. Many of the federalists began to 
look back and to see with regret the folly and 
madness of their course. They saw that they had 
aided the enemy ; for a mere refusal to carry on the 
war, after it is begun, tends inevitably to that 
result. When the question of war is pending, and 
the contest is not yet resolved upon, an honest 
opposition to it is but freedom of opinion and 
action, and it is the right of every freeman. But 
when the war is actually begun, every act of oppo- 
sition to it is an act of treachery to the govern- 
ment and the country ; for it aids indirectly the 
country's invaders. 

Such was the view which the federalists had be- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 377 

gun to take of the subject, when, on the 8th of Jan- ^^f^- 
uary, 1815, occurred the battle of New Orleans, ^^ — -■ 
resuhing in a victory to American arms, which 
will be remembered so long as the Mississippi 
bears the tribute of its waters to the ocean. Gen- 
eral Packenham led the attack, at the head of an 
army of veteran troops, inspiring them with the 
promise of " beauty and booty." * General Jack- 
son, the American commander, with a force in- 
ferior in numbers and composed in part of militia, 
calmly awaited the event. No sooner had the 
enemy, marching in solid columns, approached 
within a few rods, and attempted to deploy into 
line, than one continuous sheet of fire, pouring 
from every part of the American works, arrested 
their movements, and drove their shattered ranks, 
confused and panic-stricken, from the field. Again 
the bold attempt was made, in the face of the same 
destructive fire, and with the same fatal results to 
the enemy. Packenham, with two distinguished L^rrof 
officers, fell. When, at length, the invaders hurried s^o'n. 
defeated to their ships, from a conflict in which the 
Americans had lost scarcely a dozen men, they left 
two thousand of their best troops, either killed or 
desperately wounded, on that field, which they 
had entered with so many bright visions of un- 
bounded triumphs, unrestrained riot, and profitable 
plunder. 

The news of this brilliant victory was soon suc- 

* McAfee's History of the Late War, p. 52 1 ; Waldo's Life of Jackson, p. 
231; Claiborne's Notes on the War in the South, p. 73; Life of General 
Jacivson, by a Freeman, p. 82; Ru.sseirs History of the War, p. 310, Note; 
Allison's History of Europe, vol. 'I, p. W5, (Harper's edition ;) Cobbett's Life 
of Jackson, (London edition of 1834 ;) Letter of General Jackson, dated Feb- 
ruary 19, 1844, MSS. ; Armstrong's History of the War. 

48 



378 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ceeded by the intelligence of an honorable peace, 
^..J^ concluded between this country and Great Brit- 
ain. It was everywhere received with joy, and 
spread through the country with the speed of the 
wind. The great body of our troops, disbanded 
at once, returned to their quiet homes, to ex- 
change the fatigues and dangers of the war, for 
the peaceful employments they had abandoned at 
its commencement. Our merchant ships, spread- 
ing their white sails to the breeze, again rode 
securely upon the ocean, and bore unmolested, to 
every port on the globe, our flag, now rendered 
respectable in the eyes of all nations by the splen- 
dor of those naval conflicts over which it had so 
often floated in triumph. 

Thus the war closed — leaving to the republican 
party the cheering conviction that they had fought 
well, and to the federalists the mortifying reflec- 
tion that their ill-timed opposition to the govern- 
ment had materially assisted the enemies of their 
country. In some parts of the country the war 
had received the most enthusiastic support. Many 
a father, fired with more than Spartan patriotism, 
viewed the fall of a son as scarcely a calamity ; 
and, forgetting his grief in his patriotism, deemed 
it no sacrifice, so that he fell for his country. 
of' " When we connect our naval deeds," said an 

don orator in congress, " with the other events of the 

^^^«- , .,, 1-11 • 1 • 

ves. war, who will say this has been an inglorious 

war? — An inglorious war! Insult not the gal- 
lant men who have fought and bled in your bat- 
tles, and yet live with high claims to your applause. 
Tread not so rudely on the ashes of the heroic 
dead. Could the soul of Lawrence speak from 



I 



NEW HAMPSHIKE. 379 

the cerements which confine his mouldering hody, chap. 
in what appalhng language would he rebuke the ..^^J^ 
man who should assert that the contest in which 
he so nobly died was an inglorious w^ar ?* Will 
you tell that worthy manf who fills, with so much 
fidelity and usefulness, a station in your service on 
this floor, that this is an inglorious war ? He has 
beheld one son triumph J over his country's foe, 
and live to hear and receive the applause and 
gratitude of his country. He has seen another § 
fall in the arms of victory, heroically aiding in an 
achievement which, if it be not unparalleled, is 
certainly not exceeded in the annals of history. 
Happy father! — yet I would call him a miserable 
and hopeless man, were this an inglorious war. 
But I must call him a happy father, for God and 
nature have implanted in our bosom a principle 
which elevates us above the love of life and friends, 
and makes us think their loss a blessing, when 
they are yielded up in the cause of a beloved 
country, on the altar and in the spirit of patriot- 
ism. It is this principle which makes that excel- 
lent father reflect, not merely with composure, but 
with pleasure, on the child of his love giving up 
his life in battle — his blood mingling with the 
wave, and his body entombed in the bosom of Erie. 
Yes, he would rather feci the consciousness that 
his gallant boy fought with Perry, and died in the 
glorious battle of the tenth of September, than 

* Capt. Lawrence, commander of the Chesapeake, who fell in action with 
the Shannon, near Boston harbor. 

f Mr. Claxton one of the olFicers of the house. 

X Lieutenant Claxton, who was on board the Wasp when she captured the 
Frolic. 

^ Midshipman Claxton, killed in the battle on lake Erie. 



380 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, now embrace him in his arms — again animated 

XI • • 

^___ with the strong pulse of Hfe — again pouring into 

the parental bosom his filial duty, and lighting up 

a father's pride and joy." 

Upon the meeting of the legislature in June, 
Governor Oilman, still hostile to that policy which 
originated the war, after congratulating the people 
upon the return of peace, introduced the following 
language in his message: "The calamities of 
war," he said, " have been severely felt ; the loss 
of the lives of multitudes of our countrymen; 
the expense of treasure ; depreciation of national 
credit, a large debt and multiplied taxes. What 
have we gained ? " 

On the other hand, at an early period of the 
session, Mr. John F. Parrott, of Portsmouth, in- 
troduced a series of spirited resolutions in the 
house, eulogizing the various military and naval 
commanders who had distinguished themselves 
during the war. 

Mr. Phinehas Handerson warmly opposed the 
adoption of the resolutions, and moved their com- 
mitment. " He should never approve," he said, 
" of the preamble and resolutions as they were. 
They carried on their face approbation of the late 
unnecessary and foolish war. They would say to 
the world, what a majority of the house would 
never concede, that the war was a politic and just 
measure, and that it was wisely and prudently 
managed. What have we acquired by the war ? 
What have we gained by the treaty of peace? 
We have gained nothing." * * * He was willing 
to compliment the men who had fought, but he 
was unwilling to acknowledge that the country 
had gained anything by their fighting. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 381 

Mr. Parrott opposed the commitment. " Gen- chap. 
tlemen," he said, "who Avish for commitment, J,-.-^ 
say the language is too strong; admitting, how- 
ever, at the same time, that the officers and men 
in the army and navy have deserved the highest 
commendations of their countrymen ! What do 
gentlemen wish? Will (hey 'damn with fiiint 
praise,' in the fear of committing themselves in 
favor of the war ? Will they deny that these men 
have done much — nay, everything for their coun- 
try ? Will they deny that the victories of 1814, 
on lake Champlain, at Plattsburg, at Bridgewater 
and Chippewa, hav^ been the salvation of the 
nation ? Will they deny that ' veteran skill has 
yielded to the rugged powers of intrepid free- 
men ? ' Will they deny that these brave men 
have given to the Americans ' a name and a praise 
among the nations ?' " 

After an extended debate, the resolutions were 
committed by a majority of six votes only. They 
were, however, reported and adopted in a new 
form, so modified as better to suit the taste of the 
majority, and yet convey a high com})liment to the 
brave men who had participated in the hardships, 
dangers and triumphs of the war. They declared isio. 
that " the legislature, in common with their fel- 
low-citizens, duly appreciated the important ser- 
vices rendered to their country, upon the ocean, 
upon the lakes, and upon the land, by officers, 
seamen and soldiers of the United States, in many 
brilliant achievements and decisive victories, which •'^"'^v 

' nal ot 

will go down to posterity as an indubitable memo- *^„n^^' 
rial that the sons of those fathers who fought the ^^^^^ 
battles of the revolution, have imbibed from the 



382 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, same fountain that exalted and unconquerable 

XI 

;_ spirit which insures victory, while it stimulates 

the exercise of humanity and courtesy to the 
vanquished." 

1S16. Governor Oilman having declined the support 
of his friends for a re-election, and taken a final 
leave of public life, the federal party, upon the 
approach of the spring election of 1816, presented 
James Shcafe, of Portsmouth, as a candidate for 
the office of governor. He was a man of exten- 
sive property and respectable abilities, and had 
already been elevated, by the favor of his party, to 
a seat in the United States ^nate. The republi- 
cans still adhered to William Plummer, who had 
received their zealous but unsuccessful support 
throughout the whole period of the war. The 
contest was waged with great violence, and re- 
sulted in the election of the republican candidate 
for governor, by a very decisive majority. The 
republicans at the same time gained an entire 
ascendency in the state ; an ascendency which the 
federalists, in that name, were destined never to 
regain. 

Upon the meeting of the legislature, William 
Badger was elected president of the senate, and 
David L. Morrill speaker of the house. In his 
message. Governor Plummer recommended legis- 
lative action in the affairs of Dartmouth college, a 
repeal of the jvidiciary law of 1813, and a general 
reduction in the expenses of the state. 

1816. " Our public offices were made," said the gov- 
ernor, "not for the emolument of the officer, but 
to promote the public interest ; and by the con- 
stitution frugality is considered as indispensably 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 383 

necessary, and economy an essential vh^tne to the chap. 
state. The great mass of our citizens are agricul- .^^^^ 
turalists and mechanics, and live on the products 
of manual labor ; and from this class of people is 
collected the principal portion of taxes paid into 
the public treasury. Under such a government 
and from such a people, justice and sound policy 
equally require that the salaries of their public 
officers should be moderate, not exceeding an 
adequate compensation for the actual services they 
perform." * * " Whenever the salaries in a repub- 
lic are raised so high as to excite the spirit of 
avarice, and induce men to seek office from sordid 
motives, it has a direct tendency to extinguish 
public spirit, and to destroy the laudable ambition 
of holding office for the noble purpose of promot- 
ing the public good. It tends to multiply the 
number of office-seekers, increase intrigue and 
corruption, produce extravagance and luxury in 
the officers ; and their influence insensibly leads 
others to imitate their pernicious example. It was 
the observation of a man, not less eminent for his 
talents as a statesman than his knowledge as a 
historian, that high salaries are evidences of the 
decline of repuhlicanism in a state." 

The law of the federal legislature of 1813, estab- 
lishing the supreme judicial court, was promptly 
repealed, and the former superior court of judica- 
ture was again revived. The judges who owed 
their places to the party innovations of the period 
referred to, were sent into retirement. William 
Merchant Richardson, of Chester, was appointed 
chief justice, and Samuel Bell and Levi Wood- 
bury were associated with him on the bench— 



384 HISTORY OF 

CHAP three gentlemen of talents and high legal attain- 
__, ments, of whom the former retained his respon- 
sible station till his death, a period of twenty-two 
years, while the others resigned only to accept 
of still higher honors. 

Mr. Woodbury was at this time but twenty-six 
years of age ; but he had distinguished himself in 
college as a scholar, and was already a leading 
member of the bar. He was also still more dis- 
tinguished as an ardent and powerful advocate for 
the war of 1812, and a firm supporter of the gov- 
ernment. So responsible an office conferred upon 
one so young, drew general attention to the man- 
ner in which his duties were discharged. But his 
reach of thought, his research, and ready appre- 
hension, seemed to supply the place of experience, 
and rendered his services on the bench of the 
highest value, and his legal opinions of undoubted 
authority. Seven years from this time he was 
elected governor of the state, and afterwards 
passed into the senate of the United States, and 
finally he became successively secretary of the 
navy and of the treasury. But whether on the 
bench or at the bar — in the senate or the cab- 
inet — he has displayed that integrity, diligence, 
and weight of talent, by which not a few of the 
young men of America have risen from obscurity 
to distinction, and won immortal honors for them- 
selves and their country. Untiring effort and judi- 
cious method — the great secret of success — both in 
his private studies and official duties, have enabled 
him to rise step by step to all the high stations of 
honor and public trust which he has been called 
upon to fill. During the intervals between the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 385 

sessions of congress he has continued to practise chap. 
at the bar, and has moved, not without honor to .^...i^ 
himself, amidst that bright constellation of lawyers 
for which New Hampshire was at this period cele- 
brated throughout the United States. Webster, 
unanswerable in argument — Mason, Smith, Bell 
and Fletcher, all famous for legal acuteness — 
Sullivan, unequalled in the music of his voice and 
the charms of his persuasive address — Bartlett, 
master of all the graces of action, speech and 
thought, yet strong in argument — these were the 
associates and competitors of Mr. Woodbury. 
Disciplined in such a school, he became strong 
amongst the strong men by whom he was sur- 
rounded ; and by his characteristic industry, zeal 
and habits of systematic arrangement, made him- 
self felt as a man of distinguished ability at the 
bar, and in all the various and high public stations 
which he occupied. 

Benjamin Peirce, who had been removed from 
office, for his sturdy refusal to recognise the new 
court, only to be elected four years in succession 
to the council, was ultimately again appointed 
sheriff of Hillsborough county. 

The enormous abuses of the power of creditor 
over debtor were exciting the attention of the peo- 
ple, and calling forth execrations from the phi- 
lanthropic and liberal everywhere. In some in- 
stances, the father of a poor family was for years 
immured in a dungeon for the amount of the 
prison charges, and his family, meanwhile, were 
reduced to pauperism and beggary. No age, no 
condition, was exempt. The poor and decayed 
veteran, whose best years had been spent in the 
49 



386 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, service of his country, was often confined with 
.^5^ felons, and year rolled on after year, leaving him in 
hopeless confinement. In Amherst jail were three 
aged prisoners, one of whom had groaned in con- 
finement almost four years. A way was now open 
for their deliverance. General Benjamin Peirce had 
been appointed sheriff" of the county by Governor 
Plummer. In his character were united the gen- 
erosity of the soldier with the Uberal sentiments of 
enlightened philanthropy. He had fought for lib- 
erty and had enjoyed it. He was a man who lived 
not for himself alone; and he could not endure 
that three old men, for no crime but honest pov- 
erty, (which, though not a crime, was punished as 
such,) should be shut out from the air, and close 
their days in a dungeon. When he found every 
other means for their release ineffectual, he at 
once resolved to pay their debts himself. He 
, gave them notice to this effect, and appointed the 
day for their deliverance. The inhabitants thought 
. the occasion worthy of public demonstrations, and 
assembled to witness the release. On liberating 
the prisoners the veteran general thus addressed 
them : — 

" Moses Brewer, Isaac Lawrence, and George 
Lancy. By the return made me by Israel W. 
Kelly, Esq., my predecessor in the office of sheriff* 
for the county of Hillsborough, it appears that you, 
Moses Brewer, was committed Dec. 13, 1814; and 
you, Isaac Lawrence, was committed Dec. 27, 
1815; and you, George Lancy, July 2, 1817. 

" My unfortunate fellow-citizens : the feelings 
excited by a view of your situation, are inexpressi- 
ble. That those heads, silvered by age and hard- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 387 

ship, and those hearts, throbhing with kindly emo- chap 

tions, should be held for this long period of time, . ^^ 

by their fellow-citizens, without the imputation of 1808. 
a crime, in a captivity unparalleled even in the 
annals of the French Bastile, or Algerine slavery, 
always viewed by us with sentiments of inexpress- 
ible horror, is more than my nature is able to 
endure. To be immerged in a dungeon, standing 
on the very soil of liberty and in the midst of men 
boasting its high privileges, is in my mind, with 
which the ideas and the value of freedom are 
closely interwoven, infinitely worse than to be en- 
slaved in a foreign land, by enemies and barbarians, 
from whom nothing better could be expected. But, 
as an officer of the county, I have a duty to per- ^^' 
form. I must either be governed by the law, and '^^• 
suffer you still to remain, the devoted victims of 
unavoidable misfortune and honest poverty, shut 
out from the genial light of heaven and the vital 
air, God's equal gift to all ; to endure, perhaps 
perish under, the privations incident to your situa- 
tion and the stern ravages of approaching winter ; 
forlorn and destitute, with no friend to comfort, no 
society to cheer, no companion to console you — 
or, I must be directed by the powerful impulse of 
humanity ; pay the debt myself, and bid you leave 
this dreary and gloomy abode. 

"My unfortunate fellow-citizens; — my duty to 
myself will not suffer longer to remain here an old 
companion in arms, who fought for the liberty 
of which he is deprived, for no crime but that 
of being poor. My duty to my country, whose 
honor is deeply implicated by your sufferings — and 
it is one of my first wishes it should be untar- 



388 HISTORY OF » 

CHAP, nished — and my duty to my God, who has put it 

;_ into my power to relieve, irresistibly urge me to 

the latter course. This, I am sensible, takes from 
me a large sum of money, however the liberal and 
generous peoj)le, among whom it is my happy lot 
to reside, may participate; if not, none but my 
children will have any right to reproach me ; and I 
am confident they will do no more than say their 
father was generous to a fault. In this view, go ; 
receive the uncontaminated air, which is diffused 
abroad for the comfort of man ; go to your fami- 
lies and friends, if you have any. Be correct in 
your habits. Be industrious — and if your totter- 
ing and emaciated frames are so far exhausted as to 
prevent your getting a comfortable support, apply 
to the good people for relief — and may the best of 
heaven's blessings accompany you the remainder 
of your days." 

This liberation took place on the 20th of No- 
vember, the more grateful to the prisoners that it 
happened at the coming on of winter. 

Sixty-one years before this time General Peirce 
was born at Chelmsford in Massachusetts, and 
was the son of a farmer. On the memorable nine- 
teenth of April, 1775, while he was ploughing in 
the field, a horseman rode up to the door, and 
having delivered a brief message, hastened onward 
to alarm the country. It was the news of the 
battle of Lexington which the stranger was com- 
missioned to proclaim. Leaving the plough, Peirce 
immediately set out on foot for Lexington. He 
found, on his arrival, that the British troops had 
fallen back upon Boston, and he proceeded to 
Cambridge. It was here that young Peirce, then 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 389 

but eighteen years of age, enlisted as a private in chap. 



XI. 



the army of the revolution, and attached himself to 
the regiment of Colonel Brooks. He was in the ^^^^^ 
midst of the battle of Bunker's hill; and from that ^oores 
time to the close of the revolution, he followed ^.^'l^^ 
the fortune of his regiment, fought whenever it ^'^^^- 
was called into action, and was invariably distin- ^gf; 
guished and commended, by his superior officers, 
for his gallantry and good conduct. He rose from 
the ranks to the command of a company, which 
he held at the disbanding of the army, in 1794. 
He returned to his native village and found that 
his eight years' pay, in continental money, had so 
much depreciated that it would not suffice for the 
purchase of a farm. He was, therefore, obliged to 
go into the wilderness, where lands were cheap, 
and begin the cnltivation of wild land. Here he 
made a clearing and erected a rude habitation, 
felling the trees with his axe, and procuring food 
for sustenance with his gun. In the autumn of 
1786, President Sullivan, having resolved to form 
the militia of the county of Hillsborough into a 
brigade, sought out the veteran soldier, then far 
in the woods, and commissioned him as a brigade 
major. He immediately took the necessary steps 
for the perfect organization and discipline of the 
several. regiments. He had already served more Moore's 

•1 -1 1 11 Lifeof 

than ei2;ht years m the rci^jular army, and lie con- Peirce, 

° in the 

tinued to serve in Massachusetts and New Hamp- Biogra- 

.... . phical 

shire for twenty-one years ni the militia ; leaving Annual, 
it finally in the capacity of brigadier general. 
The reofiment which furnished a Miller and a 
McNeil was for many years commanded by him ; 
and many other valuable officers, who have distin- 



390 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, guished themselves in the puhHc service, have 
_i^ been proud to say that they received the first les- 
sons of military discipline from the veteran Gene- 
ral Peirce, in the militia of Hillsborough. 

It was from principle that General Peirce was 
attached to the institution of a citizen soldiery. 
He distrusted standing armies, and regarded the 
militia as the right arm of the nation's defence, 
and not liable to become an instrument in the 
hands of executive power to overawe the people 
and destroy liberty. 

From 1789 to 1802, he was a representative to 
the general court, and in 1803 was first elected to 
the council, where he continued six years ; five 
/ of which were passed in the council of Governor 
Langdon. It was not till 1827, that he was 
elected governor of the state; and was re-elected 
in 1829, having been omitted one yenr on account 
of his opposition to John Ciuincy Adams. At the 
commencement of the last war with Great Britain, 
his spirit entered into the contest ; but the infirm- 
ities of age admonished him that he could hasten 
no more to the battle-field. Two of his sons, with 
his consent and advice, entered the public service. 
Endowed by nature with a strong mind, Governor 
Peirce had overcome the obstacles springing from 
a want of education, and by practice and perseve- 
rance had acquired a knowledge of business and a 
skill in the conduct of public affairs. It was not 
from his high public station that he obtained a 
commanding influence, but from his integrity of 
character, his benevolence, hospitality, and love 
of justice. Cheerful in his disposition, and de- 
lighting to contribute to the happiness of all 



i 



I NEW HAMPSHIRE. 391 

around him, youthful vivacity found in liim a con- chaf. 

... XI 

genial spirit, while sedate manhood and sober age _J_ 
discovered in his conduct nothing to reproach. ph°cat 
When he was removed by death, the public felt "^^'/s"",'' 
the loss of a man who had sincerely loved and ^' ^^' 
faithfully served his fellow-men and his country. 

Clifton Claggett, one of the proscribed judges, 
and Josiah Butler, one of the refractory sheriffs Nov.ae. 
of 1813, were nominated by the republican party 
for seats in the ensuing congress. If Evans, the 1S18. 
fourth and not the least deserving of those individ- 
uals, whom, in an evil hour, party violence had 
attempted to degrade in the public estimation, 
received in this new state of things, no distin- 
guished marks of public favor, it was because, un- 
der the influence of a hopeless disease, engendered 
by the laborious application of a studious life, he 
was fast going down to an untimely grave. 

The feasibility of a canal, connecting the waters 
of the Merrimac and Connecticut rivers, had long 
been a matter of discussion. It had been sup- 
j>oscd that such a work, starting at the Merrimac, 
at the junction of the Contoocook, might be ex- 
tended to the waters of lake Sunnapee, and thence 
along the valley of Sugar river, to the Connecti- 
cut. During the year 181G, a conmiittec of the 
Massachusetts legislature, with which the Honor- 
able Henry B. Chase, of Warner, was associated by 
our own, made a thorough survey of the contem- 
plated route. The lake was found to be eleva- 
ted more than eight hundred feet above the level 
of the two rivers whose waters it had been pro- 
posed to connect, and the enterprise was aban- 
doned as wholly impracticable, excepting by such 



392 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, an expenditure as its advantages could never re- 

JL pay. 

During the year, David L. Morrill and Clement 
Storer were elected to the United States senate, 
in place of Jeremiah Mason and Thomas W. 
Thompson ; six republicans were elected to the 
lower branch of congress, and the electoral vote of 
the state was given to James Monroe. 

This year was marked by an unusual prevalence 
of cold weather during the summer and autumn, 
and has ever since continued to be referred to as 
the cold season. Snow fell in the southern part 
of the state on the 9th of June. August was the 
only month of the year entirely exempt from frost. 
A scanty harvest and a general scarcity of bread, 
the natural results of a season of such unusual 
rigors, gave a new impulse to western emigra- 
tion. Hundreds of farmers, discouraged by the 
scanty reward of their toil at this unfortunate pe- 
riod, gave up their farms, and sought, in the fertile 
wilds of a distant land, for that bright sunshine of 
prosperity, which, in most cases, would have smiled 
far more surely upon them on their own native 
hills. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Contro\t:rsy with Dartmouth College — Message of Governor Plummer — 
The state assumes jurisdiction — The trustees refuse to submit to the 
law — they are summoned to meet at Hanover — A quorum do not obey 
the summons — they declare the law unconstitutional — Second message of 
Governor Plummer — Wheelock reappointed president — Charges against 
the professors — their address to the public — Death of President Wheel- 
ock — Trial of the Dartmouth college case — Arguments of counsel — 
Opinion of Chief Justice Richardson — overruled by the supreme court of 
the U. S. — President Monroe — The toleration act — Toleration in Connec- 
ticut — Bill of rights — Act of 1791 — Vexatious lawsuits brought against 
dissenters — Toleration in Blaryland and Vermont, Pennsylvania and 
Maine — Speech of Dr. Whipple — Bill of rights — Speech of Dr. Whipple — 
Speech of Henry Hubbard — Dr. Whipple in reply to Mr. Parker — Speech 
of Ichabod Bartlett — The toleration act is assailed — it passes — is again as- 
sailed violently — finally becomes popular — The Methodists — The Bap- 
tists — TheUniversalists — Scenery of New Hampshire — Ascent up Moose- 
hillock mountain — Owl's Head— Scenes in the valley of the Connecti- 
cut — View from IMoosehillock — from Catamount hill — from Haverhill 
corner — from mount Pulaski — Appearance of an American forest in Au- 
tumn — Route to the White Hills from Haverhill through Bethlehem and 
Franconia — from Lancaster — The Notch — Valley of the Saeo — Scenery 
about Indian Stream and the country near the Magalioway — Dixville 
Notch. 

The trustees of Dartmouth collesre, (so called chap. 

XII. 

from the name of its founder and patron, the Earl 

of Dartmouth,) had for a considerable time pur- " ' 
sued a course calculated to render them unpopular 
with a majority of the people. Possessing, under 
their charter from George III., the power of re- 
moving members of their board and appointing 
their own successors, they had confided tlic exclu- 
sive control of an institution, designed for the com- 
mon benefit, to members of a single religious sect 
and a single political party. Funds, bequeathed to 
the college for the establishment of a professorship, 
had been applied to purj)oses partaking of a secta- 
rian character. John Wiieelock, himself a liberal 
50 



394 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, benefactor of the college, and the son of its illustri- 
J^. ous patron, had been removed by a summary exer- 
cise of the power of the trustees, and a man more 
subservient to their views appointed in his place. 

Entrusted with the care of a great public semina- 
ry, designed to promote the general good, the trus- 
tees were accused of using the influence it gave 
them for ambitious and selfish purposes. Con- 
trolling an institution established by the bounty 
of all sects and all parties, they were believed by 
many to have perverted it from its true purposes, 
and made it a powerful instrument, in the hands of 
a particular class, for the diffusion of its own pecu- 
liar opinions. Patronised by people of every shade 
of opinion, and favored at times with liberal grants 
from the legislature of New Hampshire, the people 
could see no reason to justify the sectarian posi- 
tion which it had assumed. 

It was from such views as these, that the legis- 
lature of 1S16, believing that the trustees had 
adopted a policy in direct conflict with the charter 
from which they derived their powers, determined 
to claim jurisdiction over this institution, in behalf 
of the state, for whose "benefit" only it had been 
created. They accordingly passed two laws upon 
this subject, increasing the number of trustees 
from twelve to twenty-one ; empowering the gov- 
ernor and council to appoint the nine additional 
trustees, and fill all vacancies which should occur 
in the board, previous to its next annual meeting, 
and changing? the name of the institution from 
Dartmouth college to Dartmouth university. 

In executing the duties devolving upon him 
under this law, the governor conducted with great 
moderation, appointing several of his political op- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 395 

ponents among the new members of the board of chap 

trustees. It had been neither his design, nor that , ^ 

of his party, to make the college subservient to 
any particular interest. On the contrary, it was 
the wish of the legislature of 1816, by introducing 
men of different religious and political opinions in- 
to its government, to secure an impartial extension 
of its advantages to every sect and party. They 
believed it to be no part of the proper business 
of such an institution to inculcate the favorite dog- 
mas of any one class m that community for whose 
common benefit it had been established. They 
wished, rather, to place the only college in the 
state in such a position — a position that it should 
be regarded not as an engine to stamp a peculiar 
creed upon the minds of its citizens, but as the 
fountain of that correct knowledge which enables 
men to reason for themselves — in such a position, 
in short, that it should deserve the equal favor and 
equal patronage of the whole community. 

At the opening of the June session of the legis- is 16. 
lature, June 6, 1816, Governor William Plummer 
thus called the attention of the legislature to the 
subject of Dartmouth college : 

" There is no system of government where tlie jour- 
general diffusion of knowledge is so necessary as "uie' 
in a republic. It is, therefore, not less the duty fsie, ' 
than the interest of the state to patronise and sup- 
port the cause of literature and the sciences. So 
sensible were our ancestors of this, that they early 
made provision for schools, academies, and a col- naUf 
lege, the good effects of which we daily experi- senate, 
ence. But all literary establishments, like every- session, 
thing human, if not duly attended to, are subject p d. 
to decay. 



396 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. " Permit me, therefore, to invite your consider- 
_,.J_ ation to the state and condition of Dartmouth 
college, the head of our learned institutions. As 
the state has contributed liberally to the establish- 
ment of its funds, and as our constituents have a 
deep interest in its prosperity, it has a strong claim 
to our attention. The charter of that college was 
granted Dec. 30th, 1769, by John Wentworth, 
who was then governor of New Hampshire, under 
the authority of the British king. As it ema- 
nated from royalty, it contained, as was natural it 
should, principles congenial to monarchy. Among 
others, it established trustees, made seven a quo- 
rum, and authorized a majority of those present 
to remove any of its members, which they might 
consider unfit or incapnble ; and tlm survivors 
to perpetuate the board, by themselves electing 
others to supply vacancies. This last principle is 
hostile to the spirit and genius of a free govern- 
ment. Sound policy, therefore, requires that the 
mode of election should be changed, and (hat trus- 
tees, in future, should be elected by some other 
body of men. To increase the number of trus- 
tees, would not only increase the security of the 
college, but be a means of interesting more men in 
its prosperity. If it should be made, in future, the 
duty of the president, annually in May, to report 
to the governor a full and particular account of 
the state of the funds; their receipts and expendi- 
tures; the number of students and their progress; 
and generally the state and condition of the col- 
lege ; and the governor to communicate this state- 
ment to the legislature, in their June session ; 
this would form a check upon the. proceedings of 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 397 

the trustees, excite a spirit of attention in tlie ofii- ciiAP 

. XI[ 

cers and students of the college, and give to the J__ 
legislature such information as would enable them 
to act with greater propriety upon whatever may 
relate to that institution. 

" The college was formed for the public good ; 
not for the emolument of its trustees ; and the 
right to amend and improve acts of incorporation 
of this nature has been exercised by all gov- 
ernments, both monarchial and republican. Sir 
Thomas Gresham established a fund to support 
lecturers in Gresham college, in London, upon the 
express condition that the lecturers should be 
unmarried men, and upon their being married, 
their interest in the fund should absolutely cease; 
but the British parliament, in (he year 1708, passed 
a law removing the college to another place, and 
explicitly enacted that if the lecturers were mar- 
ried, or should marry, they should receive their 
fees and stipend out of the fund, any restriction or 
limitation in the will of the said Gresham to the 
contrary notwithstanding. In this country, a 
number of the states have passed laws that made 
material changes in the charters of their colleges ; 
and in this state, acts of incorporation, of a similar 
nature, have frequently been amended and changed 
by the legislature. By the several acts incorpo- 
rating towns their limits were established ; but 
whenever the legislature judged that the public 
good required a town to be made into two, they 
have made the division, and in some instances 
against the remonstrance of a majority of its in- 
habitants. In the charter of Dartmouth college 
it is expressly provided that the president, trus- 



398 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, tees, professors, tutors, and other officers, shall 
■J^,^ take the oath of allegiance to the British king ; 
but if the laws of the United States, as well as 
those of New Hampshire, abolished by implica- 
tion that part of the charter, much more might 
they have done it directly and by express words. 
These facts show the authority of the legislature 
to interfere upon the subject ; and I trust you will 
make such further provisions as will render this 
important institution more useful to mankind." 

These views of Governor Plummer met the ap- 
probation of a majority of both senate and house. 
Accordingly, on the twenty-seventh of June, 1816, 
a law was passed assuming to the state of New 
Hampshire complete jurisdiction over the college, 
and changing its name to Dartmouth university. 

To this law the trustees refused to submit. 

In obedience to the law the governor summoned 
the trustees and overseers of Dartmouth university 
to meet at Hanover on the twenty-sixth of Au- 
gust, 1816. But a quorum did not obey, nor did 
they answer the governor's request. Two days 
after, they declared that the law of the state, to 
amend the charter and enlarge the corporation of 
naUf I^tii'tiiiouth college, was, in point of precedent 
SeSate ^^^ principle, dangerous to the best interests of 
N°7- society; that it subjected the collese to the arbi- 

session, J ' J o 

'^|.^' trary will and pleasure of the legislature ; that it 
contained palpable violations of their rights ; was 
unconstitutional ; and that they would not recog- 

nai"of iiise or act under its authority. 

Senate, ^^ tlic Opening of the November session their 
proceedings were laid before the legislature, and 



Nov 
session 



J^is. upon- them Governor Plummer thus remarked : — 



» NEW HAMPSHIRE. 399 

" It is an important question, and merits your chap 
serious consideration, whether a law, passed and J^.^ 
approved by all the constituted authorities of the 
state, shall be carried into effect ; or whether a 
few individuals, not vested with any judicial au- 
thority, shall be permitted to declare your statutes 
dangerous and arbitrary, unconstitutional and void. 
Whether a minority of the trustees of a literary 
institution, formed for the education of your chil- 
dren, shall be encouraged to inculcate the doctrine 
of resistance to the law, and their example toler- 
ated in disseminating principles of insubordination 
and rebellion against government. 

*' Believing you cannot doubt the course proper 
to be adopted on this occasion, permit me to re- 
commend the passage of a bill to amend the law 
respecting Dartmouth university. Give authority 
to some person to call a new meeting of the trus- 
tees and overseers ; reduce the number necessary 
to form a quorum in each board ; authorize those 
who may hereafter meet to adjourn from time to 
time till a quorum shall assemble ; give each of 
the boards the same authority to transact busi- 
ness at their first, as they have at their annual meet- 
ings ; and, to remove all doubts, give power to the 
executive to fill up vacancies that have or hereafter 
may happen in the board of trustees ; and such 
other provisions as will enable the boards to carry 
the law into effect and render the institution use- 
ful to the public." 

During the year, two of the original board of 
trustees, together with the nine who had received 
their appointments from the executive of the state, 
constituting a majority of the whole number, as- 



400 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, sembled at Hanover. They reappointed John 

.^ _!_. Wheelock to the presidency, and elected William 

H. Woodward, Esq., treasurer of the university. 
Thus Dr. Wheelock was finally restored to the 
presidency of the Dartmouth university, to the 
great joy of the friends of science and liberal 
principles. Thus did the veteran president, after 
years of persecution, springing from the intoler- 
ance of a religious sect, return again to his post 
in the field of literature. His friends hailed his 
return as "a triumph of liberty and justice over 
intolerance and oppression." To the use of the 
university the trustees committed the use of all the 
college buildings ; and entrusted the records, books 
of account, and other property of the institution to 
the treasurer they had appointed. In the mean- 
time, three fourtlis of the old board of trustees, 
claiming the exclusive and absolute control of the 
college property under their charter, and declaring 
the law to be an invasion of their constitutional 
rights, refused to accept of its provisions. Under 
their direction, the officers of the old college, re- 
taining a large majority of the students, continued 
their usual course of instruction, in apartments 
procured for the purpose. 

Thus we had two conflicting institutions in the 
same town, a university and a college, each claim- 
ing the control of the same property and each 
coming in active competition with the other. 

The old trustees and professors busied them- 
selves in writing volumes of abuse against the 
state government and Governor Plummer. Pre- 
vious to the March election of 1817, they pub- 
lished the most inflammatory and treasonable 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 401 

appeals to the people, with the hope of inflii- chap 

encing the popular vote. The natural effect of '^ 

this was to give the repuhlicans a great gain, 
especially in the vicinity of Hanover. 

When tlie committee, appointed by the legisla- 
ture to take possession of the buildings and appa- 
ratus of the university, applied to President Brown, 
he refused to surrender the keys, and the commit- 
tee were obliged to break open the buildings. 
Brown and the professors then withdrew to other 
buildings, taking with thom such of the students 
as chose to follow them, and then organized 
classes and continued to instruct them during the 
existence of the university. 

The trustees of the university, early in Febru- 
ary, 1817, assembled at Concord and preferred 
charges ajrainst Presidont Brown and Professors 
Shurtleff and Adams ; the substance of which was, 
a refusal to yield obedience to the late act of the 
legislature : and cited them to appear before them 
on the twenty-second of February, to show cause Feb 
why they should not be removed. On the twenti 
eth of February, they sent to the board an answer, 
refusing to comply with the citation, but couched 
in courteous terms, and setting forth their resolve 
to appeal to the highest judicial tribunals. On 
the twenty-eighth of February, they published an 
address to the public, in the same tone, declaring 
the votes of the university trustees, removing them 
from office, as wholly unauthorized and destitute 
of any legal effect ; and affirming that they were 
still, as they had uniformly claimed to be, officers 
of Dartmouth college, under the charter of 1769 — 
51 



m 



HISTORY OF 



CHAP, and that they liad resolved to assert their corpp- 
___ rate rights. They frankly stated that they had 
taken into consideration the act of June, and had 
voted "not to accept its provisions." They re- 
fused to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States and to the state of New Hampshire. Their 
charter required them to take an oath of allegianpe 
to the British crown ; but this they had omitted 
to do since the American revolution. 

They disclaimed any intention to ofier forcible 
resistance to the laws, but intimated plainly in 
their address that their rights of conscience had 
been invaded, and oppression practised upon them 
to such an extreme degree as to greatly endanger 
or defeat the great ends of civil government — that 
ill the act of June the legislative branch of govern- 
ment had transcended its legitimate power, and 
had assumed to perform certain acts which the 
constitution had assigned to the province of the 
judicial branch. This address and answer was 
signed by Francis Brown, Ebenezer Adams, and 
Roswell Shiu'tleft'. The people read it and were 
greatly exasperated. It seemed to them that the 
professors — entrenched behind a British charter, 
and actuated by a preference for monarchy — 
were impudently defying the constituted author- 
ities of the state, and trampling upon the consti- 
tution and the laws. Denunciation was showered 
upon the professors from all quarters. The pa- 
pers of the day attacked them with violence, and 
denounced them as an "Orthodox junto." 
The professors in return poured forth volleys of 
epithets upon the state government and upon Gov- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE 4^)3 

ernor Plummer ; stigmatizing them as " agrari- chap. 
ans," "infidels," "democrats," "French jaco- ,_<,.,^ 
bins," "villains," and " sans-cuUotes." 

The papers in the interest of the college de- 
scribed the committee sent by the legislature to 
take possession of the college, as a gang of unprin- 
cipled villains, who had risen up in defiance of law 
and had wantonly broken open and taken posses- 
sion of the college buildings. 

The papers of the people promptly returned the 
attack ; and compared the charter professors to 
the infuriated bigots of popery in the dark ages — 
as "a set of abominable intolerants," "aspiring 
not only to the sole direction of our literature, 
but to the management of our government" — as 
" the gangrened persecutors of President Wheel- 
ock," "like the Jews who had sworn not to eat 
until they had killed Paul" — as "hunting up evi- 
dence against Wheelock," and having the expense 
"clubbed against them," and when they had 
failed of procuring evidence, "hurling him from 
his station, without the sanction of the usual cere- 
mony." Such was the tone of public discussion. 
The popular voice was loud against the profes- 
sors ; and they, in their turn, poured forth, if pos- 
sible, louder execrations and more bitter vials of 
wrath upon the people. 

In the heat of the contest, in April 1817, Presi- 
dent Wheelock died, at the age of sixty-three, la- 
mented even by his persecutors : — a ripe scholar — 
a liberal Christian — an ornament to literature — an 
unrivalled instructer — a good man — vigorous in 
intellect — assiduous in toil. The most industrious 
of his pupils, in the vigor of youth and inspired by 



404 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, emulation, vainly strove to outwatch the midnight 

'^ lamp of their instructer. All admitted that his 

virtues demanded a durable monument. 

Meanwhile the contest continued. The leading 
members of the legislature, who advocated the 
state authority and approved of the course pur- 
sued by the legislature, were denounced by the 
college papers as "vipers," "slanderers," and 
" executioners." The professors having failed to 
affect the people, next sought to intimidate the 
superior court by proclaiming that the act of the 
legislature could be regarded in no other light 
than as a war against religion ; and if the judges 
should sustain it, "the execrations of this age and 
posterity awaited them." In this movement the 
professors were equally unsuccessful. 

The old board of trustees brought an action of 
trover against the treasurer of the university, for 
the recovery of " books of record, charter, com 
mon seal and books of account," which they 
alleged to be their property. The defendant sel 
up as a defence, the laws of 1816, and his appoint- 
ment ; by virtue of which laws and appointment he 
claimed a legal right to hold the property in con- 
troversy in his possession. The general question 
was, whether the acts referred to were binding on 
the plaintiffs without their assent. 

When the case came on for final adjudication 
in the superior court of New Hampshire, the Hon- 
orable Jeremiah Mason, as counsel for the plain- 
tiffs, maintained that these acts were not binding. 
1. Because they were not within the scope of the 
legislative power. 2. Because they violated cer 
tain provisions of the constitution of New Hamp 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 405 

shire. 3. Because they violated the constitution chap. 

xn. 
of the United States. . ,^ 

In June, the case was argued in Grafton coun- jgi?. 
ty, by Smith and Mason for the college, and by ^'"**' 
Sullivan and Bartlett for the people ; but was 
continued for a further hearing in Rockingham 
county in the following September. It was finally sept 
decided in the superior court of the state, at Ply- 
mouth, in Grafton county, on the sixth of No- 
vember. Chief Justice Richardson gave the opin- no^. e 
ion of the court, drawn up in that lucid and cogent 
style for which he was distinguished, and which 
made the opinion celebrated for its elegance as 
well as for its learning, and for its harmony with 
the popular opinion. 

In delivering his opinion, Chief Justice Rich- 
ardson commenced by adverting to the distinction 
between public and private corporations ; the lat- 
ter constituted for the immediate benefit of indi- 
viduals — the former for the advantage of the whole 
community. Dartmouth college, in the language 
of its charter, was established "to encourage the 
laudable and charitable design of spreading Chris- 
tian knowledge among the savages of our Ameri- 
can wilderness, and also that the best means of 
education be established in the province of New 
Hampshire /o?' the benefit of said province." The 
trustees had no greater interests in these objects 
than any other individuals in the community. 
They had no interest in the institution which they 
could sell or transfer. Should all its property be 
lost, there would be no private loss to them. The 
franchises of the college were exercised for the 
public benefit ; and for the public benefit its char- 



406 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, ter was granted. It must be regarded, tnerefore, 

.^..^1- as a public corporation. 

" In order to determine the question submitted 
to us," said he, "it seems necessary, in the first 
place, to ascertain the nature of corporations. — 
A corporation aggregate is a collection of many 
individuals united into one body under a special 
name, having perpetual succession under an arti- 
ficial form, and vested by the policy of the law 
with the capacity of acting in several respects as 
an individual, and having collectively certain fac- 
ulties, which the individuals have not. A cor- 
poration considered as a faculty, is an artificial, 
invisible body, existing only in contemplation of 
law : and can neither employ its franchises nor 
hold its property, for its own benefit. In another 
view, a corporation may be considered as a body 
of individuals having collectively particular facul- 
ties and capacities, which they can employ for their 
own benefit, or for the benefit of others, according 
to the purposes for which their particular faculties 
and capacities were bestowed. In either view it 
is apparent that all beneficial interests both in the 
franchises and the property of corporations, must 
be considered as vested in natural persons, either 
in the people at large, or in individuals ; and that 
with respect to this interest, corporations may be 
divided into public and private. 

''Private corporations are those which are cre- 
ated for the immediate benefit and advantage of 
individuals, and their franchises may be consid- 
ered as privileges conferred on a number of indi- 
viduals, to be exercised and enjoyed by them in 
the form of a corporation. These privileges may 



NEW HAMPSHIRE 407 

be given to the corporators for their own benefit, chap. 
or for the benefit of other individuals. In either — > . 
case the corporation must be viewed in relation to 
the franchises as a trustee, and each of those, who 
are beneficially interested in them, as a cestui que 
trust. The property of this kind of corporations, 
and the profits arising from the employment of 
their property and the exercise of their franchises, 
in fact belongs to individuals. To this class be- 
long all the companies incorporated in this state, 
for the purpose of making canals, turnpike roads 
and bridges ; also banking, insurance and manu- 
facturing companies, and many others. Both the 
franchises and the property of these corporations 
exist collectively in all the individuals of whom 
they are composed ; not however as natural per- 
sons, but as a body politic, while the beneficial in- 
terest in both is vested severally in the several mem- 
bers, according to their respective shares. This 
interest of each individual is a part of his property. 
It may be sold and transferred, may, in many cases, 
be seized and sold upon a fieri facias, and is assets 
in the hands of his administrator. This is by no 
means a new view of this subject. The supreme 
court of Massachusetts, in the 'case of Gray vs. 
the Portland Bank,* most evidently viewed corpo- 
rations of this kind in the same light. In the 
case of the Bank of the United States vs. Devaux,t 
the supreme court of the United States decided, 
that in determining a question of jurisdiction de- 
pending upon the citizenship of the parties, and a 
corporation being a party, they could look to the 
citizenship of the individual corporators as of the 

* 3 Mass. Rep. 9.~9 f 5 Cranch, til. 



408 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, real litigants. The rejection of a corporator as a 

„ L witness, in cases where the corporation is a party, 

on the ground of private interest, is a matter of 
familiar practice in all our courts. 

^^ Public corporations are those which are cre- 
ated for public purposes, and whose property is 
devoted to the objects for which they are created. 
The corporators have no private beneficial inter- 
est, either in their franchises or their property. 
The only private right which individuals can have 
in them, is the rigiit of being, and of acting as 
members. Every other right and interest attached 
to them can only be enjoyed by individuals like 
the common privileges of free citizens, and the 
common interest, which all have in the property 
belonging to the state. Counties, towns, parishes, 
&/C., considered as corporations, clearly fall within 
this description. A corporation, all of whose fran- 
chises are exercised for public purposes, is a pub- 
lic corporation. Thus if the legislature should 
incorporate a number of individuals, for the pur 
pose of making a canal, and should reserve all the 
profits arising from it to the state, though all the 
funds might be given to the corporation by indi- 
viduals, it would 'in fact be a public corporation. 
So if the state should purchase all the shares m 
one of our banking companies, it would immedi- 
ately become a public corporation. Because in 
both cases all the property and franchises of the 
corporation would in fact be public property. A 
gift to a corporation created for public purposes 
is in reality a gift to the public. On the other 
hand, if the legislature should incorporate a bank- 
ing company for the benefit of the corporators. 



N E W HAMPSHIRE. 4)09 

and should give the corporation idl the necessary chap. 
funds, it would he a private corporation. Because J_^^ 
a gift to such a corporation would be only a gift 
to the corporators. So, should the state purchase 
a part of the shares in one of our banks, it would 
still remain a private corporation so far as individ- 
uals retained a private interest in it. Thus it 
seems, that whether a corporation is to be con- 
sidered as public or j)rivate, depends upon the 
objects for which its franciiises are to be exer- 
cised ; and that as a corj)oration possesses fran- 
chises and property only to enable it to answer the 
purposes of its creation — a gift to a corporation is 
in truth a gift to those who are interested in those 
purposes. 

"Whether an incorporated college, founded and 
endowed by an individiial, who had reserved to 
himself a control over its afi'airs as a private visi- 
tor, must be viewed ;is a {lublic or as a private 
corporation, it is not noces.sary now to decide, be- 
cause it does not appear tliat Dartmouth college 
was subject to nny privjite visitation whatever. 

"Upon looking into the charter of ])artmouth 
college we find that iho king ' being willing to 
encourage the laudable and charitable design of 
spreading Christian knowl<;dge among the savages 
of our American' wilderness, and also that the 
best means of education be established in the prov- 
ince of 'New Hampshire, for the benefit of said 
province,' ordained tliat there !-:hould be a col- 
lege created in said province by the name of Dart- 
mouth college, ' for the education and instruction 
of youth of the Indian tribes, in this land, in read 
ing, writing and all parts of learning, which should 
52 



410 HISTORY OF 

CHAP appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and 
J^^il christianizing children of Pagans, as well as in all 
liberal arts and sciences, and also of English 
youth and any others ;" and that there should be 
in the said Dartmouth college, from thenceforth 
and forever, a body politic, consisting of trustees 
of Dartmouth college. He then 'made, ordained, 
constituted and appointed' twelve individuals to 
be trustees of the college, and declared that they 
and their successors, should forever thereafter be 
a body corporate, by the name of the trustees of 
Dartmoutli college ; and that said corporation 
should be ' able, and in law capable for the use 
of said college, to have, get, acquire, purchase, 
receive, hold, possess and enjoy tenements, here- 
ditaments, jurisdictions and franchises, for them- 
selves and their successors, in fee simple or other- 
wise ;' — and ' to receive and dispose of any lands, 
goods, chattels and other things, of what nature 
soever, for the use aforesaid ; and also to have, 
accept and receive any rents, profits, annuities, 
gifts, legacies, donations or bequests of any kind 
whatsoever, /or the use aforesaid.' Such are the 
objects, and such the nature of this corporation, 
appearing upon the face of the charter. It was 
created for the purpose of holding and managing 
property for the use of the college ; and the col- 
lege was founded for the purpose of ' spreading 
the knowledge of the great Redeemer' among the 
savages, and of furnishing ' the best means of 
education' to the province of New Hampshire. 
These great purposes are surely, if anything can 
be, matters of public concern. Who has any pri- 
vate interest either in the objects or the property 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 4ll 

of this institution ? The trustees themselves have chap 

xn 
no greater interest in the spreading of Christian 1 — L, 

knowledge among the Indians, and in providing 
the best means of education, than any other indi- 
viduals in the community. Nor have they any 
private interest in the property of this institution, — 
nothing that can be sold or transferred, that can 
descend to their heirs, or can be assets in the 
hands of their administrators. If all the property 
of the institution were destroyed, ihc loss would 
be exclusively public, and no private loss to them. 
So entirely free are they from any private inter- 
est in this respect, that they are competent wit- 
nesses in causes where the corporation is a party, 
and the property of the corporation in contest. 
There is in Peake's cases at Nisi Prius, 154, an 
authority direct to this point. It is the case of 
Welier against the governors of the Foundling 
Hospital, and was assumpsit for work and labor. 
Most of the witnesses called on behalf of the de- 
fendants, were governors and members of the cor- 
poration. Lord Kenyon was of opinion that they 
were nevertheless good witnesses, because they 
were mere trustees of a public charity, and had 
not the least personal interest. The office of trustee 
of Dartmouth college is, in fact, a i)ublic trust, as 
much so as the office of governor, or of judge of this 
court ; and for any breach of trust, the state has 
an unquestionable right, through its courts of jus- 
tice to call them to an account. The trustees 
have the same interest in the corporate property, 
which the governor has in the property of the 
state, and which we have in the fines we impose 
upon the criminals convicted before this court. 



41j2 history of 

CHAP Nor is it any private concern of theirs, whethei 

XH . 

___. their powers, as corporators, shall be extended or 
lessened, any more than it is our private concern 
whether the jurisdiction of this court shall be 
enlarged or diminished. They have no private 
right in the institution, except the right of office — 
the right of being trustees, and of acting as such. 
It therefore seems to us, that if such a corporation 
is not to be considered as a public corporation, it 
would be difficult to find one that could be so 
considered." 

The acts in question could affect only i^uhlic 
and private rights. No clause, in the constitu- 
tion either of the state or United States, pro- 
tected the public interest in the institution from 
legislative interference. All private rights con- 
nected with it, belonged to those who founded or 
endowed it ; to the officers and students ; or to the 
trustees. The trustees were the only parties to 
the action, and upon their rights alone, the court 
were called to decide. 

Did then these acts unconstitutionally impair 
any private rights of the trustees ? The addition 
of new members to a corporation did not destroy 
it. It still retained the title to the common prop- 
erty. The old members in this instance had no 
personal title to be infringed upon. The new 
members acquired none. If new members could 
not be added to a corporation, no new duties 
could be imposed upon it, and the people must 
be denied the right of legislating for these institu- 
tions at all without their consent. 

The plaintiff contended that the acts of 1816 
had impaired their right to manage the affairs of 



NEW HAMFSHIRK. 413 

this institution, in violation of that chiuse of the chap 
bill of rights which declares that "no subject J_l^ 
shall be despoiled or deprived of his immunities or 
privileges, but hy the judgment of his peers or the 
law of the land." That the right to manage the 
affairs of the college, was a privilege within the 
meaning of this clause was certain. But how a 
privilege could be protected from the operation of 
a " law of the land," by a clause in the constitu- 
tion declaring that it should not be taken away but 
by the " law of the land," was not very easily 
understood. 

It had been urged that the charter of 1769 was 
a contract, the validity of which was impaired by 
these acts, in violation of a clause in the constitu- 
tion of the United States, which declares that 
"no state shall pass any law impaiririji the obli- 
gations of contracts.'" This clause was obviously 
intended to protect private rights of property only. 
It could not be construed to embrace contracts in 
the mere nature of civil institutions nor grants of 
a state to individual.s for public purposes. The 
charter of Dartmouth college was not such a con- 
tract as this language of the constitution referred to. 

But admitting the charter to have been such a 
contract — what was that contiijct ? Could the 
king have intended, when he chartered this insti- 
tution, to bind himself to the corporators and their 
successors forever, that they alone should control 
it, free from all legislative restraints, however 
strongly such restraints might be required by the 
public interest ? Such a contract would have 
been repugnant to all the principles of just govern- 
ment. Neither the king nor the legislature pos- 
sessed the power to make it. 



4>14 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Having thus glanced at the points of the case, 
_^ in an argument of which the above is but an imper- 
fect outhne, in concluding, Judge Richardson used 
the following language : — 

"I have looked into this case with all the atten- 
tion of which I am capable, and with a most pain- 
ful anxiety to discover the true principles upon 
which it ought to be decided. No man prizes 
more highly than I do, the literary institutions of 
our country, or would go farther to maintain their 
just rights and privileges. But I cannot bring 
myself to believe, that it would be consistent with 
sound policy, or ultimately with the true interests 
of literature itself, to place the great public insti- 
tutions, in which all the young men, destined for 
the liberal professions, are to be educated, within 
the absolute control of a few individuals, and out 
of the control of the sovereign power — not con- 
sistent with sound policy, because it is a matter 
of loo great moment, too intimately connected 
with the public welfare and prosperity, to be thus 
intrusted in the hands of a few. The education 
of the rising generation is a matter of the highest 
[)ubhc concern, and is worthy of the best atten- 
tion of every legislature. The immediate care of 
these institutions must be committed to individu- 
als, and the trust will be faithfully executed so 
long as it is recollected to be a mere public trust, 
and that there is a superintending power, that can 
and will correct every abuse of it. But make the 
trustees independent, and they will ultimately for- 
get that their office is a public trust — will at 
length consider these institutions as their own — 
will overlook the great purposes for which their 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 415 

powers were originally given, and will exercise chap 

them only to gratify their own private views and .^L. 

wishes, or to promote the narrow purposes of a 
sect or party. It is idle to suppose that courts 
of law can correct every abuse of such a trust. 
Courts of law cannot legislate. There may be 
many abuses, which can be corrected by the sov- 
ereign power alone. Nor would such exemption 
from legislative control be consistent with the true 
interests of literature itself, because these institu- 
tions must stand in constant need of the aid and 
patronage of the legislature and the public ; and 
without such aid and patronage, they can never 
flourish. Their prosperity depends entirely upon 
the public estimation in which they are held. It is 
of the highest importance that they should be fond- 
ly cherished by the best affections of the people; 
that every citizen should feel that he has an inter- 
est in them, and tliat they constitute a part of that 
inestimable inheritance which he is to transmit to 
his posterity in tlie institutions of his country. 
But these institutions, if placed in a situation to 
dispute the public will, would eventually fall into 
the hands of men, who would be disposed to dis- 
pute it ; and contests would inevitably arise, in 
which the great interests of literature would be 
forgotten. Those who resisted that will would 
become at once the object of popular jealousy 
and distrust; their motives, however pure, would 
be called in question, and their resistance would 
be believed to have originated in private and in- 
terested views, and not in regard to the public 
welfare. It would avail these institutions nothing 
that the public will was wrong, and that their right 



416 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, could be maintained in opposition to it, in a court 
^__1, of law. A triumph there might be infinitely more 
ruinous than defeat. Whoever knows the nature 
of a popular government, knows that such a con- 
test could not be thus settled by one engagement. 
Such a triumph would only protract the destruc- 
tive contest. The last misfortune which can befal 
one of these institutions, is to become the subject 
of popular contention. 

"I am aware that this power, in the hands 
of the legislature, may, like every other, at times 
be unwisely exercised ; but where can it be more 
securely lodged ? If those, wliom the people an- 
nually elect to manage their public affairs, cannot 
be trusted, who can ? The people have most 
emphatically enjoined it in the constitution, as a 
duty upon ' the legislators and magistrates, in all 
future periods of the sfovernment, to cherish the 
interests of literature and the sciences, and all 
seminaries and public schools.' And those inter- 
ests will bo cherished, botli by the legislature and 
the people, so long as there is virtue enough left to 
maintain the rest of our institutions. Whenever 
the people and their rulers sliall become corrupt 
enough to Mage war with the sciences and liberal 
arts, we miiy ho assured that the time will have 
arrived, when all our institutions, our laws, our 
liberties must pass away — when all that can be 
dear to freemen, or that can make their country 
dear to them, must be lost, and when a govern- 
ment and institutions must be established, of a 
very different character from those under which it 
is our pride and happiness to live. 

" In forming my opinion in this case, however, I 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 417 

have given no weight to any considerations of expe- chap. 
diency. I think the legislature had a clear con- ___ 
stitutional right to pass the laws in question. My 
opinion may be incorrect, and our judgment erro- 
neous, but it is the best opinion, which, upon the 
most mature consideration, I have been able to 
form. It is certainly, to me, a subject of much 
consolation, to know that if we have erred, our 
mistakes can be corrected, and be prevented from 
working any ultimate injustice. If the plaintiffs 
think themselves aggrieved by our decision, they 
can carry the cause to another tribunal, where it 
can be re-examined, and our judgment be reversed, 
or affirmed, as the law of the case may seem to 
that tribunal to require." 

Judgment was rendered for the defendant. The 
case was then carried up to the supreme court of 
the United States, where, in 1819, judgment was 
pronounced in favor of the trustees, reversing the 
decisions of the courts below. This judgment was 
based upon the opinion that the college charter 
was a contract within the meaning of the con- 
stitution; an opinion, which, had it remained un- 
questioned, would have given to our chartered 
corporations a supremacy over the laws of the 
land, which nothing short of revolution could ex- 
tinguish. Such, however, was not the result. 
Our federal courts have gradually adopted dif- 
ferent rules of construction, under which char- 
tered rights have sometimes yielded to the public 
welfare. 

The decision of Chief Justice Richardson was 
sustained generally by public opinion in New 
Hampshire and throughout the United States. 
53 



4,18 HISTORY OF 

The farmers, merchants, and mechanics, adopt- 
ing common sense views without much reflection 
or research, could not perceive that when their 
fathers threw off' the British yoke and established 
a republican government, there yet remained within 
their territory a vestige of that other government 
which they had rejected — the offspring of royalty — 
with power to perpetuate itself forever — yet pro- 
tected from all responsibility and control ; that 
while every town and every citizen in his individ- 
ual capacity, and every other corporation, was 
obliged to submit to the state laws, yet that a col- 
lege might set those laws at defiance and stand 
aloof from accountability; and that the revolu- 
tion, which changed the relations and rights of the 
citizen, yet wrought no change in the rights of 
a college chartered before the revolution ; that 
while the revolution swept every vestige of royalty 
away, yet that a college remained as a fortress of 
royal rights — and, while deriving its authority from 
the crown, might be seeking to destroy liberty, 
or might, in any other respect, pursue a course 
of ever so great wickedness and unlawfulness, 
without being subjected to either punishment or 
restraint. They thought there was a manifest 
difference between a corporation granted for the 
private advantage of its members and one in- 
stituted and continued in existence solely for the 
public good ; that though, in the former case, the 
corporators may have vested rights, because they 
have an interest in the income of the corporation, 
yet, in the latter, as there is no such interest, so no 
such rights exist ; that, in the one case, the mem- 
bers may justly seek their own emolument — in the 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 419 

Other, the public welfare should be their sole chap. 

XII 

object; that the trustees of Dartmouth college, ^.J^ 
therefore, could justly have no private interest in 
their offices, but were the mere servants of the 
public, to carry into effect the objects of the legis- 
lature and the people, in patronising that institu- 
tion; that public sentiment is greatly influenced, 
if not entirely regulated, by the liberally educat- 
ed ; that the liberally educated imbibe their sen- 
timents from their instructors and the books stud- 
ied in the course of their education ; that it is, 
therefore, a matter of the highest public concern 
that these instructors and books should teach sen- 
timents congenial with republican institutions ; 
and that the certain attainment of this object re- 
quires that colleges and public seminaries should 
be directly or indirectly within the control of the 
legislature. 

Whoever should consult the newspapers of the 
college, the Dartmouth Gazette and the Ports- 
mouth Oracle, and adopt their opinions, would 
deem the legislators and the people the most abso- 
lute agrarians and assassins. Whoever should 
consult the New Hampshire Patriot and other 
papers of the people, would infer that the charter 
professors and their abettors were little better than 
*' Spanish inquisitors." Both sides were partially 
wrong. The people were not assassins, nor were 
the charter professors with strict justice compared 
to Spanish inquisitors ; but a question had arisen, 
of great public concern on the one side, and of 
private interest and ambition on the other. It 
was but natural that the people should be irritated 
by what they deemed a factious opposition to con- 



420 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, stitutional laws, and that the college should cling 

..^,^.,;^ tenaciously to its long enjoyed interests and pow- 
ers. It was but natural that bitter animosity 
should be engendered by dispute, and that passion 

1816. and prejudice should rule the hour. 

The decision of the superior court of New 
Hampshire was finally overruled and reversed by 
the supreme court of the United States ; and thus 
the laws of the state were crushed under the 
wheels of the general government. When it was 
known at Hanover that the decision of the state 
court had been reversed at Washington, the stu- 
dents of the old college riotously entered the uni- 
versity and seized the books by force. The pro- 
fessors of the university were assailed with clubs 
and threatened with death ; and when they at- 
tempted to defend themselves, they were com- 
plained of as criminals. The students of the old 
college found a magistrate of the village subser- 
vient to their purpose; and the university profes- 
sors, for attempting a feeble defence against over- 
whelming numbers, were arrested and carried 

* before him for trial and punishment. They were 

then burnt in effigy. 

While such were the proceedings of the stu- 
dents, the people received the decision of the 
United States court, although they believed it to 
be wrong, with the utmost dignity and moderation 
of conduct. Indeed, it afforded a new and con- 
vincing proof of their patriotism and love of or- 

1816. der that they submitted to a decision which they 
deemed to be manifestly at variance with the con- 
stitution and the laws, and an arbitrary encroach- 
ment of the general government upon the rights 



NEWHAMrSHIRE. 4,21 

of the state. The doctrines of the court in this chap. 

case have met with a growing disapprobation in all 1. 

parts of the country, and are now regarded as of 
very doubtful authority. But it is not to be de- 
nied that the people acted wisely in yielding to the 
established tribunals of the country, and awaiting 
the slow operation of time to correct the errors of 
human judgment. It is believed by many that the 
day is not far distant when the Dartmouth col- 
lege case will be subjected to an entire revision, 
and the institution be placed under the control of 
the legislature. 

During the summer of 1817, James Monroe, 
having been elected to the presidency by a large 
majority, made a tour to the northern states. He 
visited Portsmouth, Dover, Concord, and Han- 
over in this state, and here, as everywhere else, 
was received with distinguished tokens of respect. 
Both parties united, with equal zeal, in the gen- 
erous preparations which were everywhere made 
for his reception. And, indeed, a suspension of 
that political warfare which had so long agitated 
the country, commencing amid the festivities which 
everywhere attended the progress of the chief mag- 
istrate of the Union, and favored by the pacific 
policy of his administration, continued with little 
interruption to its close. -> 

The state-house at Concord was this year 
erected — a neat, spacious and beautiful building 
of hammered granite, from the extensive quarries 
of the same town. Its expense was more than 
eighty thousand dollars, a considerable portion 
of which was sustained by the citizens of Con- 
cord. During the same year the Athenceum was 1817. 



422 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, established at Portsmouth; an institution which 

XII 

.^...^ now possesses a valuable cabinet of minerals, 
an extensive collection of antiquities, and one of 
the largest and most valuable libraries in the 
sf^te. 
1819. Governor Plummer having declined a re-elec- 
tion, the Hon. Samuel Bell was, in March, 1819, 
elected his successor in the chief magistracy. 
The Hon. William Hale, of Dover, received the 
votes of the federal party, which, on this occasion, 
made only a very feeble opposition. The seat on 
the bench of the superior court, which Mr. Bell 
had resigned to enter upon his duties of governor, 
was filled by the appointment of Samuel Green, 
Esq., of Concord. 

The passage of the toleration law, in 1819, was 
by far the most important measure of this admin- 
istration. It for the first time placed all religious 
sects in the state upon equal ground, and made 
them dependent upon the free contributions of the 
people for their support. 

From the first establishment of a few infant set- 
tlements in this state, the people had been dis- 
posed to resist the imposition of all restraints upon 
their religious opinions, and all unnecessary bur- 
thens upon their property. The first settlers were 
men who sought to better their condition by the 
use of such humble resources as our woods and 
waters aftbrded. These were soon followed by 
religious non-conformists, flying from the persecu- 
tions of the puritans. The former class thought 
more of their fisheries, their searchings after mines, 
and their trade, and the latter of secluded homes 
and reUgious liberty, than of the doubtful advan- 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 423 

tages to be derived from the exclusive establish- 
ment of a particular sect. Here Quakers and 
non-conformists were safe. Religious distinctions 
were unknown in public affairs. And as a natural 
consequence, when our little settlements were an- 
nexed to Massachusetts, the religious tests which 
the rigid rulers of that colony had established, 
were entirely dispensed with, so far as related to 
citizens of New Hampshire. They were author- 
ized to vote, and their deputies were allowed to 
sit in the general court, even when they did not 
claim to be members of that church, to which, in 
Massachusetts, all such privileges were confined. 

Descending from such a stock, and representing 
ancestors of every possible creed, there was never 
any general feeling among the people averse to the 
religious rights of any portion of the community. 
From a regard, however, for religion in the aggre- 
gate, rather than the interests of any particular 
sect, the early legislators of this state had enact- 
ed a law, empowering the several towns to raise 
money, by taxation, to build churches and support 
a Christian ministry. 

The progress of new sects, gradually springing 
up in the state, soon produced a great diversity of 
religious sentiment among its people. Over these 
new and feeble divisions of the religious commu- 
nity, a single denomination held the supremacy in 
nearly every town. The dissenters from this pre- 
vailing sect, divided among themselves, were sel- 
dom strong enough to support a ministry of their 
own. In this event, they were liable to be pur- 
sued with all the rigors of the law, if they failed 
to pay the established clergy a full share of the 



424 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, expenses incurred in their support. Thus many 
,_^.^ of the people were compelled to pay for the erec- 
tion of churches they never entered, for teachings 
they never heard, and clerical labors which they 
conscientiously regarded as tending only to perpet- 
uate the dominion of religious errors over the pub- 
lic mind. A law, undoubtedly established in the 
first instance from pure motives and for the public 
benefit, had thus become converted into an engine 
of oppression. 

Its repeal, however, met with a very decided 
opposition. It was declared that it would at once 
be destructive of religion and the public morals. 
Such objections have ever been raised against 
measures designed to extend the liberties of man- 
kind. But when the toleration bill had once gone 
into operation, equalising the privileges of the dif- 
ferent sects, and promoting harmony of feeling 
among their members, it gained additional respect 
for the sentiments of all religious denominations, 
and operated injuriously upon the interests of none. 
Churches have grown up under its provisions in 
every neighborhood, and a numerous ministry, de- 
pendent upon the voluntary contributions of the 
people, have been sustained with the most honor- 
able liberality. The people have given twice as 
much, of their own free will, as could be wrung 
from them under the old law, and it seems long 
since to have been conceded tliat the true inter- 
ests of every sect have been promoted by its 
repeal. 

Before the passage of the toleration act, the 
people had borne, with astonishing patience, the 
support of the congregational order by law. Year 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 425 

after year had the honest Quaker, the Baptist, chap. 
the UniversaUst, been taxed for the support of a .^,-^-^ 
rehgion in which he did not beheve ; and when he 
refused payment, was sent to a dungeon, or ru- 
ined by a never-ending lawsuit. The courts were 
tinctured with orthodoxy, and corruption ap- 
peared upon the bench. The jury were secretly 
*' culled" — dissenters were taken off, and their 
places supplied with those whose well known or- 
thodoxy afforded a guaranty that the law, right 
or wrong, would be enforced. 

While such was the state of things at home, the 
people of New Hampshire had seen a revolution 
progressing in Connecticut, similar to that which 
was now beginning among themselves. Ever since 
the first settlement of Connecticut, the people had 
groaned under an oppressive system of religious 
intolerance. It was a complete and most odious 
union of church and state. None but the standing 
order of clergy could there obtain a legal support; 
and the laws for the support of that order were 
such a direct violation of the right of every man to 
worship God according to the dictates of his own 
conscience, that by many they were deemed "dis- 
graceful to humanity." Often was the parish col- 
lector seen robbing the humble dwelling of honest 
poverty of its table, chairs and andirons, or selling 
at vendue the cow of the poor laborer, on which 
the subsistence of his family depended, in order to 
load with luxuries the ta])lc of an indolent [)riest, 
or clothe in purple those who partook with him of 
the spoils of the poor. All ministers not of the 
standing: order were viewed as thieves and rob- 
bers — as wolves in sheep's clothing — who had 
54 



4,26 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, gained a dishonest entrance into the fold, and 

XII . . 

._,^^_ whom it was the duty of the standing order to 

drive out. In 1818, a bill was reported to the 
convention of that state, confirming freedom of 
conscience to all. Every man possessed of real 
independence and enlightened views, rejoiced at a 
revolution which sundered so monstrous a union of 
the church and the state in Connecticut. The cler- 
gy of the standing order deprecated — mourned — 
threatened, and exclaimed, "Alas! for that great 
city!" But the vast concourse of the people 
joined in thanksgiving for its destruction. Such 
was the change which the people of New Hamp- 
shire had witnessed in a neighboring state. They 
themselves were bound by a system less odious in 
the degree of practical evil which it inflicted, but 
in principle essentially the same. The act of the 
13th of Anne, empowered towns to hire and settle 
ministers, and to pay them a stipulated salary 
from the town taxes. This was not directly a 
union of church and state ; but it operated most 
oppressively. Each town could select a minister 
of a particular persuasion, and every citizen was 
compelled to contribute toward the support of the 
clergyman and to build the church, unless he 
could prove that he belonged to a different persua- 
sion and regularly attended public worship else- 
where on the Lord's day. 
Bill of The bill of rights declares, "that no person of 

Rights, ^ ^ ' 1 . ,. 

Art.o. any one particular religious sect, or denomination, 
shall ever be compelled to pay towards the sup- 
port of the teacher or teachers of another persua- 
sion, sect, or denomination, and that no subordi- 
nation of any one sect or denomination, to another. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 427 

shall ever be established by law." Notwithstand- chae 

ing these clear provisions, the statute of Anne L 

continued substantially to prevail. The act of 
1791 changed the form but not the nature of the 
oppression. It vested in the selectmen of the 
tovv^ns the powers (essentially) which had before 
been vested in the body of the citizens. The 
selectmen could still settle a minister and tax the 
people for his support. They could build a church, 
and search the pockets of dissenters for the funds. 
They could prefer whatever persuasion they 
pleased, and thus compel the people to bow to 
whatever image man might set up. How could 
a dissenter avoid paying the tax ? Only by prov- 
ing that he belonged to another sect. The proof 
was often difficult to obtain, sometimes impossible. 
When a suit was instituted against him for the 
tax, and he was brought into court, he was met 
by able counsel, employed by the selectmen, well 
versed in law, and ready to quibble at the slight- 
est lack of proof, and vex him by nice legal distinc- 
tions. Mr. Smith and Mr. Mason, in one case, 
contended that the defendant, whose defence was 
that he was a Baptist, could not avoid the pay- 
ment, because he had not proved that he had been 
dipped. Neither is he a Congregationalist, re- 
plied Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Bartlett, because he 
has not proved that he has been sprinkled. 

Such was the vexatious nature of the suits to 
dissenters themselves. But if they could not avoid 
the tax, how must it be with those who belonged 
to no religious sect ? For them there was no 
escape. They were compelled to pay, notwith- 
standing the plain declaration of the constitution 
of the United States. 



428 HISTORY OF 

CHAP. Were it not for the general intolerance of that 

XII 

^.^^.^ day, it might be a subject of wonder that the peo- 
ple should submit to a law thus unconstitutional 
and void, as well as oppressive, for the space of 
twenty-eight years. Yet such was the period of 
their submission and such the provisions of the 
law. But they manifested an increasing dissatis- 
faction. They had seen the poor man cast into 
prison, and the obstinate man after spending his 
fortune in a fruitless resistance to the claims of the 
selectmen, overpowered at last, when perhaps the 
destitute wife and children needed the little for- 
tune he had thus squandered in an unsuccessful 
contest. The New Hampshire Patriot,* a popular 
paper at the seat of government, had spoken 
warmly against the oppressive exactions of the old 
law. 31 any of the most enlightened minds in the 
state were known to be its opponents. 

Besides the revolution in Connecticut, they had 
seen the representatives of France vote down a 
proposition to enforce respect to the established 
religion of the French empire and to punish out- 
' rage against it. They had read of those move- 
ments in Maryland, in which the name of Breck- 
enridge had become famous for a speech which 
he had made on the Jew bill, and in which he 
brought out, and set in lucid and beautiful order, 
the great doctrines of civil and religious liberty. 
The state of Vermont had commenced, in 1791, 
the same system established in New Hampshire. 
In 180.3, it was relaxed, and any person declaring to 
or writing to the selectmen, that he was not of the 
same religious sect with the majority of the town, 

* Then conducted by Isaac Hill. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 429 

was exempt from taxation. In 1807, the compul- chap. 
sory law was wholly abolished. Yet the state of J__ 
Vermont was not ruined by the change, as had 
been predicted by the advocates for compulsion. 
In Connecticut the laws had been abolished which 
compelled uniformity of religion, by obliging every 
town to support a clergyman, and allowed to no 
man the right of suffrage, unless he was in full 
communion with the church. All this was swept 
away, to give place to complete toleration and 
equahty — yet neither vice nor crime increased. 
The state of Pennsylvania never compelled the 
support of religion ; yet the people were not want- 
ing in piety, and they had little of the clamor of 
religious faction. 

The constitution of Maine, formed about this 1819. 
time, seemed to embody the liberal sentiments tmioil 
which began everywhere to prevail. Her bill of Midne. 
rights, modelled after that of New Hampshire, 
declared that there should ])e no religious test 
as a qualification for any oHice — that no person Bin of 
should be hurt, molested or restrained in his per- ^'=^^^- 
son, liberty or estate for worshipping God in the 
manner and season most agreeable to the dictates 
of his own conscience. Such was the progress of 
opinions abroad, when the toleration act of New 
Hampshire came up on its final passage in the esof 



Hull. 



house of representatives. It was a favorite maxim bard' 

with the anti-tolerationists, that " every man ought and"' 
to be compelled to pay for the support of religion 

somewhere;"* and they contended that this was es^'oi' 

implied by the constitution. The tolerationists pief* 

denied both the constitutionality and the expedi- lett, 

ency of the doctrine, and contended for absolute Butters 

* Hubbard's Speech, 



430 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, freedom and voluntary contribution. The oppo- 

'^ nents of toleration maintained that it was the design 

of the framers of the constitution that every citi- 
bard's zen should be compelled to contribute his just and 
Xne, equal proportion for the maintenance and support 
of the ministry. They also gravely contended, and 
with much sincerity argued, that the passage of 
this law would produce the dire etTect to " make 
young people walk in the fields and associate and 
visit much together on the Sabbath" — that it 
would introduce confusion — that it would dis- 
courage preachers of the gospel, by making them 
too dependent. 

On the other hand, the advocates for toleration 
maintained that the law of 1791 was an attempt 
to compel uniformity of religious faith, and that 
such attempts were destructive to liberty and dis- 
astrous to religion. They endeavored to prove 
that by the constitution neither the selectmen nor 
the courts had any right to require evidence of a 
man's religious faith, beyond his own declaration — 
that his own deliberate avowal of his belief should 
be the highest evidence required, and should ex- 
speech cusc him from paying the tax. " Have we," said 
Whip- Whipple, " any tribunal to which, as a standard 
^'^' of faith, men's consciences can be referred for de- 
cision and regulation ? Has our constitution pro- 
vided any such? How then, sir, is this question 
to be settled, but by the individual's declaration, 
concerning his own religious belief? And, sir, 
do not your existing laws in effect establish such 
an inquisitorial tribunal ? They authorize the 
selectmen to assess monies voted by towns for 
the support of ministers, and for building and re- 
pairing meeting-houses. In this assessment they 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 431 

necessarily exercise their judgments, and assess chap. 

those whom they deem liable; your collectors , '^ 

are armed with strong powers; no barrier is in- 
terposed between the delinquent's property and 
their grasp; property is taken, exposed to pub- 
lic sale and the tax satisfied. The only remedy ^le'l" 
left the oppressed citizen is an appeal to his ^^Tnc,' 
peers — under the direction of judicial officers, '^'^" 
where his conscience is submitted to the arbit- 
rament of jurors, and of jurors too, perhaps, 
under the influence of strong religious preju- 
dices! After struggling for years against the 
combined influence of the town, the prejudices 
of the jurors, the corruption of witnesses, the 
ingenuity of counsel, disposed to perpetuate the 
oppression, and the 'glorious uncertainty' of the 
law; after spending the means on which his family 
depend for support, ruining his fortune and re- 
ducing himself to beggary ; he may recover the 
amount of tax and cost. For, sir, let it be 
remembered that unless he shows corruption in 
the selectmen, or assessors, or a design to tax 
wrongfully, he can recover no exemplary damages. 
But even this pitiful redress is not certain. In- 
stances have frequently occurred when jurors could 
not agree, and the man wrongfully assessed has 
been dismissed from the tribunal, where ' drowsy 
justice still nodded upon her rotten seat, intoxica- 
ted by the poisonous draught of bigotry prepared 
for her cup.'" 

It was not enough for a man to declare to the 
selectmen that he was not of the established reli- 
gion. This denial, far from pacifying, rather 
served to inflame the agents of the dominant creed, 



432 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, who were never satisfied until the dissenter was 

XH 

_,,.^ arrested and committed to prison. 

Bill of The fifth article of the bill of rights declares, 

Rights,, ° ' 

Art. V. that "every individual has a natural right to wor- 
ship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science and reason; and no subject shall be hurt, 
molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or 
estate, for worshipping God in the manner and 
season most agreeable to the dictates of his own 
conscience, or for his religious profession, senti- 
ments or persuasion ; provided he doth not dis- 
turb the public peace, or disturb others in their 
religious worship." 

Notwithstanding this plain declaration of the 
bill of rights, no Christians but Congregationalists 
were recognised as a religious sect. There was 
but one sect known to the law of 1791. Univer- 
salists, Methodists, Baptists, were indiscrimingtely 
classed with the Orthodox, and when they plead- 
ed their difference of sentiment as a reason why 
they should not be taxed, they were told that they 
were not acknowledged by the laws as religious 
denominations, and that the assessors therefore 
might assess them with Congregationalists. The 
courts even sanctioned this doctrine ; and, for the 
first time, perhaps, the confidence of the people in 
the judiciary was shaken. After having been 
"molested" by the most oppressive taxes, con- 
trary to the express language and plain meaning 
cor*ds of the bill of rights for thirteen years, the Freewill 
%ec.^j\ Baptists procured an act of the legislature to be 
jinM3, passed in 1801, recognising them as a rehgious 
'aSV denomination ! The Universalists did the same in 
^1^07.'' 1805, and the Methodists in 1807. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 433 

In the course of the discussions which arose chap: 
upon this vitally important question, the opponents .^^ 
of toleration strenuously contended that it was the 
duty of the state government to establish and en- 
force uniformity of religion. This position was as- 
sailed in a most powerful manner by Dr. Whipple. 

"This attempt at uniformity," said he, "has Speech 

. . of Dr. 

in all governments and countries produced that whip- 

. . pie. 

very state of public depravity and moral desola- 
tion so much deprecated by the opponents of this 
amendment. The requirement in a foreign gov- 
ernment,* that any individual shall have partaken 
of the sacrament, before the exercise of any civil 
trust, is directly calculated to produce hypocrisy 
and irreligion. For this reason you see men aris- 
ing from the the sacred emblems of the blood and 
body of our Lord, to drunkenness, lewdness and 
profanity. It was this spirit which kindled the 
fires of the Inquisition — collected the fagots, and 
emboldened the horrid inquisitor to chant ' ex- 
piTTgat Deus,' aroimd the consuming corse of the 
human victim. This was the spirit, sir, which, 
under the mask of Christianity, 

' With Heaven's own thunders shook the world below, 
And played the God an engine on his foe.' 

" It was the indulgence of this spirit which fixed 
a stain on the character of Calvin, which not all 
his excellent virtues, nor time, nor oblivion can 
wash out. To this idol, Servetus was sacrificed as 
a burnt offering. To glut this monster, the blood 
of Balzec flowed ; and to slake his thirst for re- 
venge, the amiable, learned and industrious Cas- 

* Connecticut. 

55 



434 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, talio was slandered, traduced and exposed to 

L suffering. It was this, sir, which caused the 

bloody Mary to sacrifice her hecatombs of human 
victims in the sight of Heaven, in the sight of that 
God who has declared himself the common Father 
of us all. 

" This spirit, sir, caused our forefathers, who 
themselves fled from persecution, to banish Qua- 
kers, whip dissenting females, persecute Baptists, 
and to do other enormities which have stained the 
pages of our history. And is none of this spirit 
left among us ? Is it extinct ? No, sir — this 
spirit now operates. It is this which causes those 
who advocate the cause of religious freedom to be 
stigmatized with the opprobrious epithets of deist, 
atheist, and men of no religion.'^ 

After this speech was delivered, the antagonists 
of Dr. Whipple sharpened their weapons anew, 
and prepared to make another and stronger ap- 
peal to the prejudices and fears of the legislature. 

bard's *' Pass the bill now on the table," said Mr. 

1819.' Hubbard, "and the temples now consecrated to 

July. 

the worship of the Saviour of the world will soon 
be deserted and forsaken." 
ke"'s The opponents of the bill carried the minds of 
*5^iJ, ' their hearers back to the epoch of the French rev- 
olution, and informed the house that the bloody 
scenes of that drama commenced by treating with 
contempt the institutions of religion. 

Yet so rapid was the change of public sentiment 
in favor of the bill, and so poorly did the objec- 
tions raised against it bear the test of examination, 
that even some of the ablest opponents* of the bill, 

* Amonff these was Mr. Hubbard. 



1817. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 435 

while it was under discussion, voted in the affirm- chap. 

• XTT 

ative on the question of its final passage. 

The remaining opponents of the law, however, 
endeavored to convince the house that some of the 




most bloody scenes in history had been caused by 
a want of respect for the clergy. It was for Dr. 
Whipple to reply to arguments like these, by illus- 
trations drawn from the same sources. " Has 
the gentleman," (Mr. Parker,) said he, "forgot- ^^ 
ten the day of St. Bartholomew, at Paris, when, ^j^|p- 
in one fatal night, sixty thousand dissenters were ^v^^'^^- 
murdered in cold blood, under the direction of the 
officers of the established church ? Has he forgot- 
ten the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in the 
reign of Louis XIV., by which measure fifty thou- 
sand dissenting families went into exile and num- 
bers perished ? Or can it be said, that those 
scenes, so shocking to humanity, so repugnant to 
the pure principles of the Christian religion, hap- 
pened from any want of respect for the clergy of 
that day? No, sir; the church was then abun- 
dant in her revenues, splendid and imposing in her 
worship, and the clergy dictated the government 
itself. These outrages originated, sir, not in a 
want of respect for the clergy, nor in sectarian 
influence; but in that desire for uniformity, that 
itch for splendid external worship, which in all 
ages and in every country has produced domina- 
tion and cruelty in the clergy and stupidity and 
slavery in the people. We neither ridicule nor 
oppress the clergy. We commend their virtues 
and value their labors, while directed to the great 
and important purposes of teaching that religion 
which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be en- 



43^ HISTORY OF 



.ih-,"«- 



CHAP, treated, full of good works, without partiality and 

,3!L, witliout hypocrisy. But, sir, when we see them 
anxious to amass power, wealth, worldly honor, 
rather than that which cometh from above ; when 
we see them endeavoring to establish ' the splen- 
dor of the church upon the misery of the citi- 
zen ' — heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure 
more than lovers of truth, justice, mercy and 
charity; when, like Thomas A. Becket, they are 
aiming at the civil authority — then shall we have 
reason to exclaim, in the language of the litany, 
from such men 'good Lord deliver us! '" 

This speech was replied to at great length, and 
ably, by the advocates for intolerance, who lost no 
opportunity to show that the law was unconstitu- 
tional and subversive of religion. Their argu- 
ments were met by Ichabod Bartlett, a young but 
distinguished advocate, of Portsmouth. 

ofTcha- " It is objected," said he, " that the bill before 

B^rt- the house permits every person to settle the ques- 

Juiy, tion for himself, what denomination he is of — that 

^^'^" his consent is necessary, to be subjected to any 

denomination, and his dissent frees him. Praised 

be God, that the wisdom of our fathers has so 

Consti- ordained — for thus I undertake to say it is decreed 

tution . . . y_,, . . • 1 r* 

of New m our constitution. Ihis is apparent, in the nrst 

shire, place, fi'om the nature of the evils intended to be 

guarded against by the provisions of that consti- 

RilVts tution. Their object was not only to secure the 

Art. v. perfectly free exercise of religious opinions, but to 

remove all pretence for disturbing or annoying 

any in the enjoyment of it. The intention was not 

merely to authorize a defence against oppressors, 

but to disarm bigotry and fanaticism — not only to 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 437 

interpose the shield of charity and toleration, but chap. 
to wrest from the hand of persecution the sword .^^.-^ 
that would be used to perforate it. The framers 
of that instrument had learned, by fatal expe- 
rience, the truth of Lord Mansfield's declaration 
before the house of peers, that 'conscience is not 
controllable by human laws ; nor amenable to 
human tribunals. Persecution or attempts to force 
conscience can never produce conviction, and are 
only calculated to make hypocrites or martyrs.' 
They had learned the outrages of religious infatu- 
ation when countenanced by law. History had 
told them of the horrors of the civil power, under 
the pretence of pious purposes, which v^cre prac- 
tised upon the followers of our Saviour. They 
had seen, with the cruelty, the inefficacy too of 
the civil government upon this subject. They had 
seen an army of seven hundred thousand men, for 
religious purposes, making prisoners and victims, 
but never converts or Christians. They had seen 
its absurdity in ' solemn convocations ' upon the 
most frivolous pretences. They had not only seen 
the effect of the stake and fagot in the reign of 
Mary ; they had not only looked upon the con- 
dition of the sufferer, but had themselves passed 
through the fires of persecution. They had en- 
countered the savage beasts and savage men of 
the wilderness, to escape the more savage fury of 
relisfious intolerance. And, such is the effect of 
fanaticism, they had seen those yet bleeding with 
the stripes and wounds of persecution, themselves 
become persecutors ; and even the legislative re- 
cords of a neighboring colony stained with an act 
authorizing the putting to death, without even the 



438 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, form of a trial, ' any Quaker, Adamite, or here- 

XII • 

J__ tic' Disgusted with the follies and absurdities, 
shocked at the horrors, and bleeding with the 
wounds, which religious bigotry, armed with civil 
power, had inflicted, the framers of our constitu- 
tion determined to guard against the repetition of 
such scenes. They had become convinced, too, 
that the pure religion of the gospel would ever 
flourish best unencumbered with legal pains and 
penalties; that every eflbrt of compulsion and 
force reacted upon the movers ; and that even 
should an external observance of any particular 
creed be enforced by the civil authority, it could 
at best command but a hypocritical service ; that 
tenets, enforced by an oflicer of the law, or the 
point of the bayonet, could produce no salutary 
influence upon the mind. And while experience 
had taught them the ineflicacy of such attempts, 
revelation proclaimed that the principles of the 
gospel were their own best support ; and that the 
work, 'if it were of God, would prevail.' With 
such convictions, they determined to remove every 
pretence for violence — and that the arm of civil 
power should in no case interfere where the peace 
of civil society was undisturbed. 

" Those evils, sir, are not guarded against ; the 
views of those who framed our constitution are 
not accomplished upon any other construction of 
that instrument than the one adopted by this bill. 
Say to the majority of any town that they may tax, 
not only their own sect, but all, who, they may 
please to say, do not belong to some other sect ; 
and deprive the person so assessed from deciding 
that question ; and what is the consequence ? Do 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 439 

we want new evidence of the propensity of any chap. 
dominant sect to assume to itself all claim to cor- ^..-^ 
rectness — to dispense indiscriminately the title of 
infidel and heretic to all who differ ? Do we not 
know that the privileges and powers of the consti- 
tution, thus interpreted — 

'Like saving faith, by each would be applied 
To one small sect, and all are damned beside ? ' 

"Did those who sought the blood of our fore- 
fathers believe they were sending to the scaffold 
and stake persons of any religion? Never. Take 
from the dissenter the power of determining his 
faith for himself, and the sect in power, while 
they levy their contributions upon him, will claim 
the merit of seizing the goods of infidels for the 
support of religion ; as the executioners of our 
ancestors did the praise of destroying their bodies 
to save their souls from heresy. 

" It may perhaps be thought that in the present 
age there can be no danger in putting a construc- 
tion upon this provision of the constitution, which 
shall give the majority a right to decide upon and 
control the religious opinions of the minority. 
Has human nature changed ? Has it ceased to be 
true that like causes produce like effects ? Give 
to religious bigotry the power, and you shall again 
hear the thunders of the Vatican denouncing all 
dissenters. You shall soon see a second edition 
of the famous unam sanctam, declaring a univer- 
sal assent to the exercise of omnipotence by some 
particular sect, in matters of faith, essential to sal- 
vation. They may not perhaps again clothe those 
they condemn as heretics in garments of pitch for 



410 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, a conflagration, or in the skins of wild beasts to 
,« — 1, be devoured by dogs ! but they will enrol them in 
their tax lists, to support doctrines which may be 
thought of a pernicious tendency, and set upon 
them a no less ravenous race of blood-hounds. 
' Fanaticism,' said Sir James M'Intosh, ' is the 
most incurable of all mental diseases, because, in 
all its forms, it is distinguished by a mad contempt 
for experience.' Not the enemies, but the friends 
of religion have too much reason, with regard to 
the leaders of different denominations, without dis- 
tinction, to describe each in the language of an 
eloquent divine of the present day, as ' arrogating 
all excellence to his own sect, and all saving 
power to his own creed ; sheltering, under the name 
of pious zeal, the love of domination, the conceit 
of infallibility, and the spirit of intolerance; and 
trampling on men's rights under pretence of sav- 
ing their souls.' " 

These and similar speeches went forth to the 
people — were eagerly read and loudly applauded 
by all but the Congregational order. The sound- 
ness of their arguments produced great effect. 
Indeed, so evident are most of their positions, and 
so apparent, tliat at the present day the only won- 
der is that they should ever have been doubted, 
or should ever have found opponents. These 
opponents constantly sought for historical proofs 
of the danger of multiplying sects. But had they 
sought to find illustrations of the danger of swal- 
lowing up all minor sects in one predominant order, 
they would have been much more successful in 
their researches. 

Against the toleration act fanaticism fought 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 44)1 

with its usual ferocity. By the eiiHghtened por- crat. 
lion of the people it was hailed with joy. By the — ,-l_ 
orthodox it was loaded with anathemas. The 
clergy feared that their tithes would be diminished 
when the people were no longer compelled to pay 
them. The ignorant and bigoted mourned over 
the change with well-meant sorrows. "Alack! 
Alack!" said they, "religion! we have none 
of it. Our general court at Concord have put 
away our religion. The godly folk there fought 
hard and long for religion, but the wicked ones 
outnumbered them, and religion is clean gone." 
The clergy had instilled into the minds of the igno- 
rant that the wicked ones (who composed a major- 
ity of the legislature) had destroyed a law with- 
out which religion could not exist. 

After the passage of the toleration act, a clamor 
was raised throughout the state, with the hope of 
producing a reaction against the bill and thus in- 
fluencing the elections. Some declared it to be 
"a repeal of the Christian religion;" others said 
that "the Bible is abolished ;" others that "the 
wicked bear rule." The truth perhaps was that 
the dominant sect could no longer support their 
system by extortion and oppression, that all sects 
were placed upon a level — so that it was not reli- 
gion which was abolished, but the power of the 
Congregational order. 

In the passage of this law the friends of reli- 
gious liberty found cause for rejoicing. They 
regarded it as an auspicious era in the history 
of New Hampshire, and believed that it would 
bv^ viewed with peculiar interest throughout the 
country, and with pride and pleasure by their 
56 



442 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, posterity. They rejoiced that a law, which they 

J L regarded as a stain upon the statute book, had at 

length been wiped away — and that every citizen 
might now worship in the manner and season most 
agreeable to him, without being driven to a con- 
fession of faith before a jury, or to the necessity of 
expending hundreds of dollars in a court of law 
to recover back an illegal assessment of a few 
shillings. 

Notwithstanding all the clamors raised against 
the toleration act, no sooner had it gone into oper- 
ation than religion began to be supported more 
liberally by voluntary contribution than it had be- 
fore been by compulsion. When this fact was 
apparent, and stood clearly revealed by the light 
of experience, the bitter censures which had been 
passed upon the friends of the law, began to be 
withdrawn, and the severest strictures were dealt 
out freely to its opponents. Thus it happened 
that the men, who, at the outset, while the law was 
unpopular, put their political character and suc- 
cess at stake by their fearless and decided con- 
duct, gained finally their reward, while the honest 
dupes of fanaticism, and the timid and time-serv- 
ing politicians who stooped to gain popularity by 
compromising principle, met with the odium which 
was their due, and with the distrust which their 
conduct inspired — thus illustrating the wise say- 
M*^^-„ ino- of Governor Bell, that " the statesman who 

sage 01 O ' 

g^^Y takes the constitution for his guide, and faithfully 
adheres to its spirit, may confidently indulge the 
assurance that he cannot materially err; and 
though prejudice or self-interest may misrep- 
resent and censure his official acts, time, with 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 443 

that candid and dispassionate consideration which ciiap 

it never fails to bring, will eventually do justice to .^ '^ 

his motives and his conduct." 

During the toleration contest, the Congrega- 
tional order levelled their sharpest weapons against 
the Methodists ; a sect then comparatively feeble 
and possessed of but limited means to make their 
real doctrines known. The Orthodox denounced 
them as "antichrist" and immoral; and affirmed 
that their church government was a monarchy. / 
Time has shown that whatever may be the faults 
of their system of church government, no denomi- 
nation of Christians has done more to improve the 
morals of society. Their distinguishing charac- 
teristic is humility — the substance without the 
show of godliness. They seem to take no pride in 
collecting large funds, erecting costly churches, 
and pasTsing in splendid pageantry before the world. 
Their preachers receive but a scanty livelihood, 
and expect no more. Is a Methodist clergyman 
rich? it is in the treasures of another world. In- 
cessant in labor, plain in his garb, and meek in his 
deportment, he moves through the humble sphere 
of his labors, visiting the abodes of the poor as 
well as the mansions of the rich, imparting com- 
fort to the dying and the destitute, encouraging 
the disconsolate, rebuking the proud, and holding 
out a free salvation, without partiality and vvith- 
out hypocrisy, to the whole family of man. When 
these humble Christians first appeared with their 
doctrines, they were described as "disturbers of 
the peace" — "brawlers" — "disorderly persons," 
and "enemies to learning;" and their arduous 
and honest labors were treated by the Congrega- 



444 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, tional order with proud contumely and vaunting 

J„_^ reproach. 

Nothing intimidated by this undeserved censure, 
they continued their labors, which at first began 
with the poor, but gradually spread through the 
wealthier portions of society. If they have not 
disarmed the hostility of opposing sects, they have 
^ commanded respect by their increasing numbers 
intelligence, and power. They have commended 
themselves to all men by their ardent love for 
humanity, by the genuine simplicity of their faith, 
and by their attachment to liberty and the rights of 
man. The coldest skeptic can hardly deny that 
they have been successful imitators of Christ ; and 
it would be difficult for the most jealous republican 
to discover that their system of church government 
has thus far had any practical tendency to monarchy. 
The hostility which had been displayed towards 
the Methodists, was directed with equal severity 
against the Baptists, and was equally undeserved. 
The Universalists, a sect then much weaker 
than either of the others, and distinguished by 
essential differences of opinion from both, did not 
escape the general attack. 

The doctrine of Universalism was first preached 
in New Hampshire, in 1773, by Mr. Murray. 
In 1802, Christopher Erskine, of Claremont, hav- 
ing been sued for parish taxes, by the Congrega- 
tionalist society in that town, asked advice of the 
general convention of Universalists. The judges 
of the supreme court had decided that Congrega- 
tionalists and Universalists were the same sect in 
the eve of the law ; and thus Erskine was called 
upon to comply with the demand of the parish, in 



NEW HAMPSHIKE. 445 

which he Hved. If this decision was to abide, chap. 
suits without number might be brought against J-,.^ 
Universalists. The convention appointed Rev. 
George Richards to present a memorial to the 
judges on the subject. In 1803, the profession 
of beHef and plan of the convention was declared. 
A special address was also sent out fi-om the con- 
vention to the Universalists of New Hampshire, 
"occasioned by the decision of the judges of the 
supreme court of said state, adjudging the pay- 
ment of ministerial taxes to Congregationalist min- 
isters." " They complain that by this decision a 
whole body of professing Christians in that state, ^ 
are blotted from the volume of legal existence." 
The points of faith in which Universalists and 
Congregationalists differ are pointed out, by which 
it is shown that they cannot be one and the same 
denomination. The sufferers are persuaded to 
submit peaceably as good citizens, until redress 
should be had of the legislature. The profession 
of belief was drawn up to show that Universalists 
differed from all others, and were necessarily a 
distinct sect.* 

The "profession of belief" declared by the con- 
vention in 1803, is as follows. It has never been 
altered, and is satisfactory to the denomination. 

"Art. I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments contain a revela- 
tion of the character of God, and of the duty, 
interest and final destination of mankind. 

"Art. II. We believe that there is one God, 
whose nature is love; revealed in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, by one Holy Spirit of grace; who will 

* Whilteinore's Modern Ilistorj' of Universalism. 



446 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, finally restore the whole family of mankind to holi- 
^^.^^ ness and happiness. 

"Art. III. We believe that holiness and true 
happiness are inseparably connected; and that 
believers ought to be careful to maintain order, 
and practise good works ; for these things are 
good and profitable unto men." 

The Universalists were recognised as a distinct 
sect, June 13, 1S05. 

Rev. Hosea Ballou, a leading and distinguished 
minister of this denomination, was born in Rich- 
mond, in this state. He has in his day acquired 
great distinction as a minister and theological con- 
troversialist. 

The denomination of Universalists has gradu- 
ally increased in New Hampshire, as in other 
states of the Union. There are now in the state 
one convention, six associations, eighty-two soci- 
eties, besides churches, sixty-six meeting-houses, 
owned wholly or in part by Universalists, and 
thirty-five ministers. 

The doctrine which they preach is sometimes 
called "universal restoration," but more 
commonly Universalism ; and places in a most 
attractive light the paternal character of the Deity. 
It is a doctrine of extended charity, infinite benev- 
olence and boundless love. It teaches that the 
sorrows of man cease with his mortal career * — 
that pain may die and every wo may find an ob- 
livion — but that joy and hope (in which fear is not 
mingled,) that life and love are immortal; that 
infinite goodness watches over the life and the des- 

* Some of the Universalists, called " Kestoratiouists," believe in a limited 
punishment after death. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 447 

tiny of man ; and that when the trials of a brief chap. 

... XH 

existence are past, the Deity will finally bring all _..^ 
men to a state of felicity, sublime in its nature, 
infinite in duration. 

Such is the doctrine of Universalism. When 
first taught, it was violently assailed by many of 
the best men of every faith. By some it was not 
understood, and by others it was deemed hostile to 
morality and dangerous to the good order of so- 
ciety. Yet, in its progress and development, it 
does not appear to be distinguished by any of 
those practical evils which were apprehended from 
the efforts of the few followers by whom it was 
first propagated. 

It was at this period that the scenery of New 
Hampshire began to attract increased attention, 
and travellers came in greater numbers to view 
those features which arc peculiar to the mountains 
and lakes of this state. 

Proceeding northward from Orford, where the 
intervals are narrow, the traveller enters a broad 
and fertile valley at Haverhill, which is spotted by 
villages, watered by abundant streams, and sur- 
rounded by picturesque hills, swelling into moun- 
tains along the eastern horizon, and rising to 
lofty heights at the south and west. The route 
to Moosehillock from Haverhill leads by Owl's 
Head, an abrupt mountain, which presents its bald 
and rugged face at the road side which winds 
along the Oliverian. The sombre green foliage 
of the black alder fringes this wild stream, min- 
gled with the sprightlier leaves of the birch, maple 
and white ash, with here and there a willow or a 
slender mountain ash. From this stream a rude 



44(8 HISTORY OF 

CHAP, foot path has been cleared, which winds up the 
.......^ mountain's side. Your approach to the summit 

becomes visible by the diminished size of the trees, 
and by their naked, dead and gnarled aspect. 
They are pine, spruce and fir — the only one that 
retains its greenness is the mountain ash, which 
seems to flourish at an elevation where all others 
die. The mountain sorrel, which adorns the path 
with its delicate white bell, striped with red, ap- 
pears to be the attendant of the trees, and ceases 
where they disappear. At last they sink to craggy 
dwarfs, and are destitute of foliage. Approach- 
ing the summit, the moss becomes thicker and 
thicker, until near where the trees disappear it 
covers the ground with a carpet of the brightest 
green. Emerging at last from a forest of small 
firs, the summit of the mountain rises before you, 
bearing no forest tree, but bare and seemingly 
composed of ledges and loose blocks of granite. 
The blueberry and harebell lie hid amid the cran- 
nies of the rocks, and the low and knotted vines 
of the mountain cranberry run over them, even 
upon the extreme summit ; where also the same 
small and solitary white flower, which flourishes 
on mount Lafayette, springs up amidst the thick 
beds of moss. From the summit of this mountain, 
which is elevated four thousand six hundred and 
thirty-six feet above the level of the sea, far to the 
eastward a vast expanse of forest stretches away 
over hills thickly covered with hemlock and spruce, 
to the purple islands of lake Winnipiseogee, 
which is distinctly visible. Westward, the pros- 
pect is bounded by the rolling ranges of the Green 
mountains. Southward hills rise o'er hills, far as 



NEW HAMPSHIRE 449 

the eye can see; and to the north, the Franconia chap. 

mountains and the more majestic peaks of the ^ 

White Hills rise and lose themselves in the clouds. 
The broad valley of the Connecticut is the charm 
of this landscape. Its numerous villages, its hun- 
dreds of farms and orchards, and all the tributary 
streams that swell the river, may be traced in their 
devious windings by the naked eye. 

Another and more charming view of this valley 
may be seen from Catamount Hill, which is a more 
moderate elevation one mile from Haverhill Cor- 
ner. This view commands twenty miles of the 
valley, bounded by the green hills of Vermont and 
the parallel range of New Hampshire mountains, 
which seem to form the outer walls of this fine 
amphitheatre of nature. 

A nearer view of the valley, and by many 
deemed more delightful, is afforded from the tops 
and the upper windows of tlie hotels at Haverhill 
Corner. This village is built on a noble swell or 
broad table of land, in the midst of the valley. 
The houses are neatly arranged on the four sides 
of the public square, which is a fine level green, 
ornamented with trees. The houses on the west- 
ern side are built on the ridge of a declivity which 
leads quite down to the meadows which border 
the river. The height of this declivity, together 
with the height of the houses, raises the traveller 
to an elevation which tnables him to overlook 
twelve miles of the valley, which lies immediately 
below him, and to view the meanders of the river 
throughout its whole extent. Nowhere else are 
the intervals so broad, nor is there any other 
spot where the river sweeps from side to side of 
57 



450 HISTORY OF 

CHAP the valley with such varied aiul graceful curves. 

.^..^ Towards the north it is divided into two streams, 
which having encircled the Oxbow peninsula unite 
again below it. Passing southward with a gently 
deviating course, now eastward, then westward, 
it receives the waters of the Oliverian and AVait's 
river, and having almost encircled the Piermont 
meadows, at the south point of which it turns 
and seems to run back upon its course, it returns 
and passes southward through Orford and Hano- 
ver. When the freshets of spring have swelled 
the river to a tlood, it overflows the banks, and 
what was a valley now seems a lake ; but when 
mantled in summer green or covered with a golden 
harvest, everything growing with rank luxuriance, 
the meadows present the appearance of a vast 
plantation shaded here and there by majestic trees 
and waving with the richest crops. When the 
frosts of autumn have given to the woods those 
varied Inics which constilut(^ the peculiar charm 
of American forest scenery, this valley [)resents 
a picture, of many miles in extent, where, in the 
many-colored woods, the red, yellow and russet 
brown are interspersed and blended in those rich 
and diverse shades, which, as they are never seen 
in Europe, are the \vonder of European trav- 
ellers. Another and dirter<>nt view is atlbrded 
from the sunnnit of mount Pulaski, which rises 
on the Vermont side of tho river, immediately be- 
hind the village of Newbury, and not far from the 
Sulphur springs, which make that town the frequent 
and delightful resort of travellers. The ascent up 
this little mountain is by a winding path of half a 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 451 

mile, leading througli rough pastures, which, in chap 
August, are fragrant with the sweet fern and .^,...-;^ 
adorned by the flowers of the beauteous harebell. 
Pursuing it upward, you enter the woods, from 
which you emerge suddenly upon the edge of a 
precipice, rising almost perpendicularly from the 
plain, on which stands the village of Newbury. 
The Oxbow,a green peninsula, lies immediately be- 
fore you, and in the distance Moosehillock, sur- 
rounded by a group of smaller mountains. A 
number of villages of the valley appear at intervals, 
and the course of the Connecticut is seen for seve- 
ral miles pursuing its devious channel, and occa- 
sionally washing the bases of the hills on either 
side. 

Leaving the Connecticut at Haverhill, the trav- 
eller passes the wild rapids of the Ammonoosuck, 
and begins to leave behind him the abrupt cliffs on 
its banks. It is not, however, till lie has ascended 
far up the eminences which divide the two rivers 
that the roar of that impetuous torrent ceases to 
be heard. But he has now arrived where the 
lands recede towards Lancaster, when, turning his 
face towards the south, he is presented with one 
of the most magnificent views of mountain scenery 
in the world. Westward stands Moosehillock, its 
dark brown rocks wound in a sheet of snow, which 
shrouds it from the base upward, and seems to 
blend with the clouds which float along or hang 
lodged upon the summit. Farther eastward are 
the Franconia mountains. Except their tops, they 
present, from their iron foundations upward, only 
the dark outline of an impenetrable evergreen for- 
est. Further south extends a long range of moun- 



4^ HISTORY OF 

CHAP tains in Lincoln, but growing loftier in" their pro- 

J^ gress, their dazzling heights at last overtop the 

lower Franconia mountains, and exhibit their bald 
peaks, brown witJi the hues of the rocks, and slop- 
ing dow^nwards into a deep wilderness. Eastward 
is the great Haystack mountain, and still farther 
is the grand feature of these regions, the White 
Hills, which seem to prop the heavens, and strike 
the beholder with emotions of awe. In winter 
they appear like vast mounds of snow, drifted on 
high, peak over peak, to the skies. Westward a 
dense forest spreads itself, and lends the charm of 
its various coloring to the picture of grandeur 
which springs from the sublime structure of the 
mountains around. In winter these cold summits 
afford no variety, except in the shadows of the 
clouds, which throw fantastic figures moving in 
groups over the snows of the mountains. Some- 
times, at night, the outline of tliese towering cliffs 
is dimly discernible by the light of the moon and 
stars ; but they never present a more magnificent 
view than when tlie first rays of morning flash 
upon them, or the rays of the sun gild them at 
its setting. Descending from the heights of Beth- 
lehem, a short ride, which completes the distance 
of forty-five miles from Haverhill, brings him to 
the hotel at the Notch. 

Another route to tlie mountains is from Lancas- 
ter. Leaving Dalton, intervening hills hide them 
from the traveller, until he emerges upon the mead- 
ows around the village of Lancaster, at the mouth 
of Israel's river. This stream is fed r)y springs 
which ooze from beneath the White Hills. He 
approaches the mountains by ascending the river 



N E W HAMPSHIRE. 453 

through an avenue fenced in by hills of the wild- CHAr. 

est structure. Boughs of the tamarac and spruce .^ 

overhang the road. Pondicherry mountain stands 
on the right, and Pliny mountain walls up the left ; 
both clad in deep green foliage to their utmost 
heights. Sometimes the heat of the sun in this 
region causes an evaporation, which gives them the 
appearance of being veiled in soft azure. This 
route from Lancaster is twenty-five miles, in a 
southeastern direction, and ends at " the Gothic 
battlements of the White Hills." Before arriving 
there, the traveller comes again upon the meadows 
of the wild Ammonoosuck, which winds westward. 
Over these level lands he passes to the Notch, and 
comes upon the source of the Saco, which first 
appears a gentle rill, that sends its current east- 
ward down through that immense gap which seems 
to have been rent in the mountains by some dread 
convulsion of nature. At the entrance of this ter- 
rific chasm, a huge fragment, which has started 
from the precipice, impends towards the road, and 
seems ready to fall. Descending the river, the 
mountains in some places seem to close before 
you, and meet together. In other places their bare 
sides, scarred with avalanches, rise perpendicularly 
at first, then, receding, swell into rugged pinnacles, 
with projecting crags on either side, which nod 
over the bleak ridges beneath, threatening to burst 
from their gigantic mounds and crush the lower 
walls that surround them. The Saco has now 
swelled to a maddening torrent, and thunders 
down the chasm with a fierce roar and a wild 
echo. Over a cliff on one of the highest points of 
elevation, distinctly seen, bursts a cataract. In 



454 ' HibTORy OF 

CHAP, summer it is a beautiful cascade. But in spring 
^^^..^ it comes, apparently gushing from the rocks, leaps 
down, foaming, whiter than the snow which swells 
it into fury, and, crossing the road under a light 
bridge, tumbles headlong into the Saco. After 
struggling through the mountains, the river issues, 
with a calm flow, upon the plain below ; and 
scarcely can the country furnish a more pleasant 
vale than that which borders the slow-winding 
(current of llie Saco in the towns of Conway and 
Fryeburg. Brilliant crystals of quartz, of fine 
prismatic forms and a pure transparency, some- 
times slightly tinged with purple, are washed into 
the tributary torrents, and are found amongst the 
rocks that border their banks. 

Previous to the survey of Dr. Jackson, the 
scenery at the extreme north of the state was little 
known. Its striking features were observed by 
him, and are known, to a few persons who have 
since visited them, to be among the grandest ex- 
hibitions of nature in North America. Indian 
Stream is a small settlement near the falls at the 
outlet of Connecticut lake. It is the most north- 
erly inhabited place in New Hampshire, and com- 
prises, in the whole, a colony of three hundred and 
fifteen persons, scattered on the undulating shores 
of the lake. They are far removed from any other 
settlement, and for many years refused obedience 
to the laws of the state. Desiring none of the 
benefits of civil government, they claimed exemp- 
tion from its burdens ; and under a simple govern- 
ment of their own, they resisted the officers of 
the law, until they were visited by a military force 
and reduced to subjection. Their country borders 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. ^55 

on the table-lands of Canada, and exhibits striking chap. 

XH. 

and peculiar features. In 1841, Dr. Jackson ex- L, 

plored Camers Rump mountain, at some distance 
from the village. It is supposed that none but the 
Indians had ever ascended it before. It was in the 
midst of a violent storm, and having pitched his 
tent, he remained there two days. The last being 
clear, and the barometer having risen apparently to 
its usual height, he found the proximate height of 
the mountain to be three thousand six hundred and 
fifteen feet above the level of the sea ; which deter- 
mined it to be one of the highest mountains in the 
state, next to the AVhite mountain range. Its geo- 
logical character he describes as peculiar. The •J.^'f; 
specimens of rock which he found consisted of JjJ^^,.j 
amorphous masses of hornstone, of various hues of Hj^' 
color, from a liglit apple green to almost black. 
He found it covered with a low and tangled un- 
dergrowth, with stunted fir-balsams and spruce. 
The view from its summit is one of surpassing in- 
terest and grandeur. Northward stretches the 
lofty range of hills which divide the watel's flow- 
ing into the St. Lawrence from those of the Ma- 
galloway and Connecticut ; and beyond these the 
broad prairies or table-lands of Canada. South- 
ward are seen Umbagog lake and the Diamond 
liills, with the numerous waters in their vicinity, 
and far beyond them the lofty heights of the White 
mountains. Westward are the lakes and tribu- 
tary streams of the Connecticut, and along the 
horizon's verge, the Green mountains. Eastward 
the view is bounded by the granite peaks of 
Maine, mount Bigelow and mount Abraham. 
Through the mountains in the town of Dixville 



456 HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAP, there is a narrow defile, which may be regarded as 

J L. one of the most remarkable exhibitions of nature 

in the state, and is described by Dr. Jackson, as 

Jack- . 

son's " perhaps surpassing even the famous Notch of 

Report. -^ ^,-*. * . . . , ,, 

p. 87. the White mountams m picturesque grandeur. 
Angular and precipitous rocks, rising hundreds of 
feet almost perpendicularly on either side, present 
in their rugged appearance a stronger resemblance 
to the rocks of the Alps than is found elsewhere 
in New England. Such are the natural features 
of this remote and but partially explored section 
of the state. A region so interesting cannot long 
remain unnoticed by those who visit the state to 
view its peculiar and sublime features ; and it is 
not improbable that the time will soon come when 
the traveller, from the shores of Lake Winnipiseo- 
gee and the peaks of the White mountains, not 
content with the wonders of nature already seen, 
v> ill pass Dixville Notch, and view the magnificent 
scenery of the Magalloway. 



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